The University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, established in the fall of 2023, appointed its inaugural Student Advisory Board for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Composed of an executive committee and over 100 members from different schools and divisions, the board aims to strengthen student engagement with the Forum’s mission, which, according to its website, is “to promote the understanding, practice, and advancement of free and open discourse, at the University of Chicago and beyond.”
“We have an executive committee that oversees it and then chairs across all schools and divisions,” Talla Mountjoy, the Forum’s director of programs, said in an interview with the Maroon. The Student Advisory Board is led by co-Presidents Syed Ahmad, a professional student in the joint M.B.A./M.P.P. program, and Elisabeth Snyder, a fourth-year student in the College.
The University has emphasized its commitment to institutional neutrality and free expression through initiatives such as the Chicago Principles, which have been adopted by over 100 other universities nationwide, and the Kalven Report, which emphasizes a commitment to institutional neutrality. As stated on its website, the Forum is a continuation of these past initiatives.
The Forum hosted its first launch event in fall 2023, featuring guests such as journalists, professors, and civil liberty advocates from organizations including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“I really enjoyed interacting with the different speakers who came,” Snyder, who attended the event, said. “I knew I wanted to be a part of this space to advance the practice of civil discourse.”
Since its launch, the Forum has hosted several events for members of the University community and beyond. These events have ranged from discussions on global political issues to workshops focused on building dialogue skills in an effort to foster an environment where participants can engage with challenging ideas. The Student Advisory Board will play a key role in supporting these efforts moving forward, according to its page on the Forum’s website.
According to Ahmad, Forum events often explore controversial topics from across the globe. In the past year, for example, several Forum events have explored the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “We had an event where we had the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority come speak,” Ahmad said. “The next week, we had a professor from Tel Aviv come speak.”
The Forum aims to create a culture of open dialogue. “The Forum events are sometimes going to be discussing free speech directly, but then a lot of the time the events will be practicing open expression and free discourse [themselves],” Student Advisory Board Treasurer Jack Crovitz said. “The practice part is really important.”
Mountjoy added that the Forum hopes its events will create an environment where students can explore and learn about important topics. “These things have nuance; they involve complex factors,” Mountjoy said. “You need to hear about them in different ways, from different angles, and keep the conversation going. It’s not something we’ll resolve after just one event.”
Students on the advisory board are encouraged to contribute to the Forum’s mission by taking ownership of events and initiatives. “There are opportunities to implement your own ideas about what free speech looks like,” Ahmad said. “There may be someone interested in AI and its impact on free speech. There may be someone interested in Hong Kong and talking about that in the context of free speech.”
In September, the University announced that it had received an anonymous $100 million donation for the Forum to expand its programming both on and off campus. “Of that hundred million dollars, some will be put to work here at the University,” Ahmad said. He also stated that the specifics of how the donation will be allocated are still being decided, but part of the funding will be used to cover costs for events, including event spaces, food, and other related expenses.
Mountjoy expressed that the Forum encourages all members of the University community to actively engage with its opportunities. “We have an opportunity to show the community across UChicago how they can leverage us because we are at their availability,” Mountjoy said.
Jack Crovitz / Jan 26, 2025 at 7:28 pm
Beautiful article, great reporting by Alex as always!