The first step is admitting you have a problem.

12 Steps for Cornell to Break Through the Monoculture!

This week, City Journal published an extraordinary interview with Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, titled “Vanderbilt University’s Chancellor Sees the Problem—Can He Find a Solution?” 

In it, Diermeier does something rare among university presidents: he acknowledges that higher education has a free speech problem. He recognizes that elite campuses have drifted into groupthink, self-censorship, and ideological homogeneity—and he is taking deliberate steps to restore the principles of open inquiry and debate that once defined the academy.

That simple act—recognizing the problem—is the first and hardest step toward institutional recovery.

At Cornell University, however, we have yet to see that same moment of clarity. Despite growing evidence of self-censorship among students and faculty, and despite mounting national attention to Cornell’s free expression climate, our leadership has not yet taken the first step: admitting that the intellectual environment has narrowed and that the university bears responsibility for fixing it.

This writer believes it’s time for President Michael Kotlikoff to do just that—to begin the process of restoring Cornell’s culture of fearless inquiry, pluralism, and genuine academic freedom.

Inspired by the structure of a 12-step recovery process, we’ve drafted a practical, good-faith “12-Step Plan for Restoring Free Expression at Cornell.” It’s not a critique from the sidelines—it’s a roadmap. A checklist of concrete actions Cornell’s leadership can take to move from denial to renewal: independent audits, new committees, outside investigations, reforms to bias reporting systems, and public commitments to intellectual diversity.

Cornell can still lead—but only if it begins where Vanderbilt has: by recognizing the problem.

Below, you’ll find our 12-Step Plan, designed to help Cornell recover its soul as a university where every idea can be tested, every voice can be heard, and no student fears being silenced.

Step 1 — Admit the Campus Has a Problem

Principle: Recovery begins by acknowledging that campus discourse has narrowed.

Actions

• Publicly recognize that political homogeneity and fear of speaking freely exist.

• Commission a Campus Climate Audit on Viewpoint Diversity led by an independent outside firm (e.g., Heterodox Academy or Gallup).

• Publish baseline data on student, staff, and faculty self-censorship and ideological composition.

Step 2 — Form a Free Expression Steering Committee

Principle: Accountability requires structure.

Actions

• Create a Presidential Committee on Free Expression, chaired by a respected centrist faculty member and including students from multiple ideological groups. Perhaps alumni as well (ok, we volunteer!)

• Mandate quarterly public updates.

• Empower the committee to review campus policies, event approvals, and speaker dis-invitations.

Step 3 — Make a Moral Inventory of University Policies

Principle: Inventory every rule that chills speech.

Actions

• Conduct a policy audit of conduct codes, bias-response systems, residence-hall guidelines, and social-media policies.

• Compare each rule against First Amendment–equivalent standards and the Chicago Principles.

• Publish an annotated matrix: “Policies to Keep / Amend / Repeal.”

Step 4 — Seek Outside Perspective

Principle: Invite scrutiny, not spin.

Actions

• Hire external consultants (e.g., FIRE) to evaluate disciplinary cases involving speech.

• Require a written report with recommendations for procedural fairness.

• Host a public forum where the consultants present findings.

Step 5 — Acknowledge Harm and Rebuild Trust

Principle: Healing requires owning institutional overreach.

Actions

• Issue an open statement acknowledging past missteps—e.g., bias-reporting misuse or speaker cancellations.

• Meet privately with affected groups (Jewish, conservative, Muslim, progressive, international) to hear concerns.

• Create a “Restorative Dialogue Fund” supporting structured inter-group conversations facilitated by neutral mediators.

Step 6 — Commit to Institutional Transparency

Principle: Sunlight is reform’s best disinfectant.

Actions

• Launch an online Free Speech Dashboard listing incidents, investigations, outcomes, and speaker events.

• Require annual disclosure of external speaker approvals and denials.

• Publish data on disciplinary actions related to expression.

Step 7 — Educate, Don’t Indoctrinate

Principle: Replace moralizing with intellectual humility.

Actions

• Implement First-Year Orientation on Free Inquiry modules co-designed with historians and civil-liberties scholars. Or add a speech and debate component to Freshman writing seminars that pushes students to defend ideas from both angles.

• Offer faculty workshops on “Facilitating Difficult Discussions.”

• Create a micro-credential in Civil Discourse Leadership for students.

Step 8 — Empower Plural Voices

Principle: Balance representation and ensure ideological diversity.

Actions

• Establish an Endowed Visiting Fellows Program bringing scholars from under-represented political or philosophical traditions.

• Guarantee funding for cross-ideological student organizations on equal terms.

• Require every major speaker series to include dissenting viewpoints in the same semester.

Step 9 — Institutionalize Courageous Conversations

Principle: Practice free expression regularly, not just symbolically.

Actions

• Host monthly “Cornell Forums”—structured debates between opposing scholars on contentious issues.

• Partner with national debate organizations to train moderators.

• Stream all forums publicly to model civil disagreement.

Step 10 — Protect the Vulnerable Without Silencing Debate

Principle: Safety and expression must coexist.

Actions

• Create a Bias-Response Review Board with both DEI and First Amendment experts to separate true harassment from protected speech.

• Clarify the line between threats and offensive expression in student handbooks.

• Provide rapid-response counseling for students targeted by online harassment without imposing prior restraint.

Step 11 — Measure Progress and Report It

Principle: What gets measured gets improved.

Actions

• Re-run the campus-climate survey annually and compare results - benchmark against the FIRE rankings.

• Track metrics: number of open forums held, viewpoint-diversity index, incident transparency, participation rates across groups.

• Present results to the Board of Trustees and make them public.

Step 12 — Celebrate a Culture of Free Inquiry

Principle: Recovery ends in renewal.

Actions

• Declare an annual Cornell Free Expression Week featuring debates, art exhibits, and awards for intellectual courage. (Reach out for ideas!)

• Establish a President’s Medal for Viewpoint Diversity recognizing faculty or students who model civil disagreement.

• Publicly reaffirm Cornell’s commitment to free speech as central to its academic mission.

What Recovery Looks Like

Recovery, in any sense, doesn’t mean perfection. It means honesty, humility, and daily practice. For Cornell, recovery won’t come through another press release, a diversity statement, or a task force that quietly dissolves. It will come when the university begins to live its own motto — “any person, any study.”

A recovered Cornell is one where students of every background can voice their convictions without fear of social or institutional punishment. It’s a campus where Jewish students feel secure, conservative students feel included, and progressive students feel confident enough to test their ideas in open debate. It’s an environment where faculty model curiosity, not conformity, and where administrators protect discussion, not manage it.

Recovery also means building habits of transparency and trust. It means publishing uncomfortable data, inviting external audits, and celebrating those who defend expression rather than those who police it. It means recognizing that true inclusion is impossible without intellectual diversity, and that universities die when they trade discovery for dogma.

When Cornell takes these steps — not just once, but consistently — it will begin to look like a community in recovery: self-aware, resilient, and free. The path will be hard, but the destination is worthy of the university’s legacy.

That is what recovery looks like: a Cornell where disagreement is not a danger, but a discipline...the beating heart of a living university.