Rudenstine Names Committee To 'Clarify' Issue of Free Speech

President Neil L. Rudenstine yesterday named a University-wide Committee on Free Speech to advise him on the issue that became a prime concern during a series of angry moments on campus last year.

The Committee's job will be to "try to clarify the issue and to help people understand better what the ground rules are," Rudenstine said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel, who will chair the group, said the committee will have no legislative or disciplinary power. He said the committee will not intervene during specific controversies, nor design a "speech code."

"Our mission is not to be a free speech SWAT team, so to speak," Sandel said. Instead, he said the committee will try "to foster discussion and debate on broad issues of free speech."

Last spring, ethnic and racial tensions flared when Black student groups invited City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries to speak on campus.

A poster by the conservative magazine Peninsula advertising an event with the title "Spade Kicks" and a picture of a partially clothed Black woman further fanned the questions over free speech and sensitivity.

Rudenstine said yesterday, though, that the committee was not a specific response to the spring's events, but rather the implementation of the recommendation of an earlier committee.

Sandel said the group may hold public forums, interview people, consult student groups and at times issue opinions on the scope and meaning of free speech.

Sandel served on an earlier committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences that issued a report two years ago focusing more specifically on disruptions of public speakers.

The government professor said he has often considered free speech in his scholarship. He said the issue often arises in the study of liberal political thought, from thetrial of Socrates to John Locke's "Letter onToleration."

In addition to Sandel, the committee iscomprised of Professor of Law Randall L. Kennedy,Professor of Law Kathleen M. Sullivan, StantonProfessor of the First Amendment Frederick Schauerand Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C.Mansfield.

Mansfield has spoken out against what he seesas the threat to free speech from "politicalcorrectness." He is a member of the NationalAssociation of Scholars, a group which has foughtagainst speech codes and generally favored freespeech over sensitivity concerns.

Mansfield said he did not want to discuss hisnotions of free speech before the committee meets.He said he sees his role on the group as "toinsert some common sense whenever the lawyers fallsilent."

'A Starting Point'

Rudenstine, Sandel and Mansfield all stressedthat Harvard is strongly and permanently committedto free speech.

"A starting point for any discussion of freespeech at Harvard must be a strong commitment tofree speech and the pursuit of truth," Sandelsaid

In addition to Sandel, the committee iscomprised of Professor of Law Randall L. Kennedy,Professor of Law Kathleen M. Sullivan, StantonProfessor of the First Amendment Frederick Schauerand Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C.Mansfield.

Mansfield has spoken out against what he seesas the threat to free speech from "politicalcorrectness." He is a member of the NationalAssociation of Scholars, a group which has foughtagainst speech codes and generally favored freespeech over sensitivity concerns.

Mansfield said he did not want to discuss hisnotions of free speech before the committee meets.He said he sees his role on the group as "toinsert some common sense whenever the lawyers fallsilent."

'A Starting Point'

Rudenstine, Sandel and Mansfield all stressedthat Harvard is strongly and permanently committedto free speech.

"A starting point for any discussion of freespeech at Harvard must be a strong commitment tofree speech and the pursuit of truth," Sandelsaid