Education
UChicago Receives Anonymous $100M Donation With Aim of Advancing Commitment to Free Expression
(WTTW News)
The University of Chicago received a $100 million gift from an anonymous donor to advance its commitment to open dialogue and free expression, the university announced Friday.
The donation will help rapidly expand the work of the school’s Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression, which launched last year, according to a press release. The forum aims to promote the understanding, practice and advancement of open dialogue at the school and beyond.
The donation will allow the Forum to build upon its work and have a larger impact, according to Tom Ginsburg, UChicago professor and the Forum’s faculty director, in a press release.
“We want the Chicago Forum to build on the University’s traditions as the place for cutting‑edge thinking to address today’s challenges,” Ginsburg said in a press release. “We also want every student to have the experience of speaking their mind, and the possibility of changing it in conversation with others.”
The gift will help launch a free expression fellowship program, host workshops for other university leaders to help them implement academic freedom programs at their institutions, support research on technology’s impact on free expression and more.
The donation comes following large pro-Palestinian student demonstrations and tent encampments at college campuses across the country last school year, including at UChicago, amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. In October, the Forum will host a three-part series on conversations examining a possible pathway for peace in the Middle East.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: @eunicealpasan | 773-509-5362 | [email protected]
