Mercer president talks Trump, ‘intellectual freedom’ in fall speech

Mercer University President Bill Underwood tends to keep his personal politics separate from his professional affairs, but he made an exception Monday.

In his address to students at the annual fall convocation, Underwood said he needed to use his own views as an illustration for a speech on intellectual freedom.

“The reason I don’t is because people have a difficult time distinguishing between me and the university,” he said.

The speech lent itself to using an incident from last school year. Supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump apparently wrote “Trump 2016 — Build the wall” in chalk on one of the university’s sidewalks. Underwood talked about both the literal meaning of that catchphrase — a physical wall along the Mexican border — but he also pointed to the metaphorical significance of the statement as it relates to broader proposals concerning Muslims.

“I think Mr. Trump’s immigration proposals are bad ideas,” Underwood said. “I think they would tend to alienate more than 1.6 billion Muslims around the world who are essential allies in our shared struggle against ISIS terrorists.”

Despite that disagreement, Underwood said he stood by campus leaders’ decision not to pursue punishment or censorship of the pro-Trump message. On Monday, he told students that it was more important not to suppress views simply based on philosophical or political differences.

“It’s not the role of the university to shield you from ideas and opinions that you find disagreeable or even that you find deeply offensive,” he said. “It is our role to to help you learn how to engage productively with those with whom you disagree, and that’s sometimes difficult.”

The specific references to Trump’s ideas were part of a larger emphasis on a “commitment to intellectual freedom” that Underwood said drew him to Mercer in the first place.

“This commitment is essential to our democracy,” he said.

Adam Ragusea, a journalist in residence at Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, said it was important for the students — particularly freshmen — to hear Underwood’s message.

“I can’t think of a single hotter topic in higher ed right now than what you might call ‘safe space culture,’ ” Ragusea said, also pointing to financial concerns as another big issue.

Campuses across the country have battled the notion that students should be able to “opt out” of situations where offensive or simply oppositional viewpoints might be expressed. Ragusea said weaving that concept in with the current campaign season was key to the impact of Underwood’s talk.

The speech also included references to Baptist leaders such as Jesse Mercer who have historically fought for religious liberties for all faiths to be protected at a federal level. Ragusea called that, combined with the Trump and “safe space” angles, a “rhetorical trifecta” for Underwood.

“I thought it was very smart and brave of President Underwood to want to take that on,” he said.

Ragusea wasn’t in complete agreement with Underwood, though. The president was of the opinion that the university should be something of a marketplace of ideas, where the best thoughts will prevail if everyone comes together intellectually.

Because minorities and women were kept on unequal footing for so long, Ragusea said, a university’s role might be to make sure those groups are fairly represented, especially as students make their first endeavors into adult interaction.

“I’m of the belief, I think, that the marketplace of ideas does need some regulation,” he said.

The speech still struck a chord with freshmen Hanah Scott and Rebekah Ballard. Scott, who came to Mercer from Covington, said that the speech was “motivating” and noted that it was important to remember that students can’t expect to be sheltered from potentially offensive opinions.

“You can’t change people. You can’t control their actions,” she said. “Don’t feed into the negativity of that.”

Ballard, who once lived in Warner Robins but has lived in Athens more recently, said she agreed that leaders can’t get caught up in making sure students don’t get offended.

“I feel like no matter what happens, someone’s always going to get offended,” she said.

Freshman James Smith took a different perspective on the speech. A Cumming native who described himself as an independent voter, Smith said he agreed with the notion that the university “should encourage all kinds of debate,” but he didn’t appreciate Underwood’s specific stances against Trump.

“If he had said ‘I disagree with Trump's policy, but I support the University in allowing students to express their opinions,’ that would have been one thing,” Smith, a political science major, wrote in an email. “However, he went into detail and made a long and thorough argument against Trump that bordered on rambling and was unnecessary for the point he was making.”

He said other students around him shared in his confusion about the commentary based on Trump’s proposals.

“Although it eventually came to a valid and important conclusion, the political opinions the President expressed were unnecessarily long, especially considering that the format of the speech did not permit a counterpoint or rebuttal that would have balanced the political lean,” Smith said.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 3:08 PM with the headline "Mercer president talks Trump, ‘intellectual freedom’ in fall speech."