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Last Thursday, the Stanford University Faculty Senate voted against repealing the 2020 censure of Dr. Scott Atlas, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and former Trump administration advisor on the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Our faculty’s rejection of the motion to rescind Dr. Atlas's censure is a definitive blow to academic freedom at Stanford. Worse yet, it reveals a troubling reality within elite academic institutions: the hollow nature of their proclaimed commitment to free speech. Initially twice postponing the vote to avoid political interpretation, the Faculty Senate has now taken the dramatic step of refusing to rescind the censure, cementing its politically motivated decision.
The Senate's outright rejection is particularly striking given the subsequent dismissal of several positions for which Atlas was initially censured. When Stanford faculty censured him in 2020 for questioning COVID-19 policies like lockdowns and mask mandates, they did so without even offering him an opportunity to defend his positions. Even as evidence has mounted supporting many of Atlas's positions, the institution has doubled down on its censure.
The Faculty Senate’s alarming unwillingness to acknowledge their error or engage in self-correction is telling. They would rather be complicit in the collapse of our University’s credibility than put their pride aside in pursuit of the truth.
The refusal to repeal the censure sends an unmistakable message to faculty members, particularly those with conservative or contrarian viewpoints—even those rooted in scientific research—that challenging the prevailing political narrative will result in permanent institutional punishment, regardless of eventual vindication. This effect played out in 2020, as evidenced by the hundreds of emails Atlas received from fellow academics who privately supported his positions but feared professional repercussions if they spoke out.
The consequence of this intellectual intimidation—and it is just that—is the creation of academic echo chambers. When faculty members witness not only the initial punishment of dissent but also the institution's refusal to correct course even in the face of supporting evidence, universities cease to function as forums for open debate and intellectual discovery. The actions of the Faculty Senate prove that universities have become environments where conformity is rewarded and permanently enforced through institutional mechanisms.
We should all be terrified knowing our educators, supposedly some of the most brilliant minds in the world, are willing to sacrifice truth and integrity for an abstract ideal of liberal democracy that is neither liberal nor democratic. Time and time again Stanford has proven that its call for “democracy” is nothing more than a front for their political agenda and not for true freedom of speech and discourse. This punishment of “thoughtcrime” is what many elite academics rely on to indoctrinate and subdue the masses.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state- and academia-sanctioned suppression of alternative viewpoints prevented crucial debate about the effectiveness and consequences of lockdown policies. As Atlas notes, these policies resulted in significant harm, particularly to vulnerable populations and children, yet the academic community's unwillingness to engage with opposing views hindered proper scrutiny of these measures. Stanford itself played a massive role in the suppression of free speech, not only through the censure of Scott Atlas and the silencing of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, but it also engaged in the censorship of American citizens through the Stanford Internet Observatory.
By rejecting the motion to rescind Atlas's censure, Stanford's Faculty Senate has definitively proven what many have long suspected: Academic freedom at prestigious institutions is merely a slogan, not a practiced principle. When an institution punishes dissent and refuses to correct its errors, it transforms from a center of learning and discovery into a propaganda machine—ultimately stripping Stanford of its value to society and credibility as an institution of higher education. Dr. Scott Atlas, Stanford students, and the whole of America deserve better. Repeal the censure of Dr. Atlas and make speech at Stanford free again.
