‘We must commit to disagreeing better’: President Rosenbury publishes op-ed in The New York Times calling for freedom of expression and open discourse on campus

“This is a time to foster more disagreement, not less,” wrote Barnard President Laura Rosenbury.

Photo by Haley Scull/The Barnard Bulletin

By Jaya Shankar

September 23, 2025

On September 17, The New York Times published an essay guest authored by Barnard President Laura Rosenbury, titled “Now Is the Time for Colleges to Host Difficult Speakers.” In an email notifying the Barnard community of its publication, Rosenbury described the essay’s topic as “the importance of disagreeing better.”

The piece responds to the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at Utah Valley University on September 10. Kirk’s death received widespread media coverage and sparked debates about politically motivated violence and free speech, particularly on college campuses. 

“Mr. Kirk was a controversial and polarizing figure, but that doesn’t matter,” wrote Rosenbury in her op-ed. Kirk, the host of a talk show and and founder of nonprofit Turning Point USA, made comments about “prowling Blacks,” used transphobic slurs, and claimed “it’s worth it to have … some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.” 

Rosenbury called for colleges and universities to “commit to nonviolent forms of disagreement — even when we are confronted with voices that disparage or dismiss identities and worldviews.” 

The op-ed comes just a week after the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) released its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings, a report that ranked 257 institutions based on their conditions of free speech and freedom of expression. Barnard and Columbia were ranked last and second-to-last, respectively. 

FIRE’s website states that “Barnard’s last place ranking reflects a campus climate where free expression is neither protected nor prioritized,” citing two incidents of “Students Under Fire.” Each incident relates to one of last year’s multiple pro-Palestine student protests. 

According to Barnard students surveyed for FIRE’s report, the College sent students “fact-finding emails” about their involvement in the March 4 sit-in at the Milstein Center. The school later suspended three Barnard student journalists who had identified themselves as press for their alleged involvement in the May 7 protest at Butler Library. Both demonstrations culminated in the presence of New York Police Department officers on campus, who arrested multiple students. 

In addition to the incidents in the FIRE report, two Barnard students were suspended and eventual expelled for disrupting a History of Modern Israel class, to which individuals representing Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) responded by staging a six-hour sit-in at Barnard’s Milbank Hall. In the wake of this protest, Rosenbury authored her first op-ed of the year, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education and titled “When Student Protest Goes Too Far.” 

In this op-ed, Rosenbury wrote that “Disrupting classes and defacing buildings to intimidate and divide our community is not academic exploration. It is a betrayal of the goals and sanctity of higher education.” 

Rosenbury referred again to “the purpose of higher education” in Wednesday’s op-ed in The New York Times, stating that it was “not to advance one viewpoint over another, but to provide our students with the tools and training they need to examine and challenge all beliefs, including their own.”

“We must have the courage to explore ideas that diverge greatly from our own. That will mean inviting a diverse range of outside speakers to campus,” Rosenbury wrote. 

On September 23, The New York Times published five letters to the editor responding to Rosenbury’s essay. Correspondents included Jhumpa Lahiri, a Barnard English professor and the director of the College’s creative writing department, and Elizabeth Castelli and Hilary Callahan, respectively the president and vice president of Barnard’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). 

“I am compelled to point out that free speech does not only apply to those outside the institution; it also applies to those within,” wrote Lahiri. “Students, the faculty and staff members should not be punished, censored or silenced for expressing their opinions or beliefs.” 

Castelli and Callahan stated that Rosenbury’s op-ed “glosses over her own actions as Barnard College’s president for the last two years.” They referred to bans on dorm room door decoration and “record numbers” of suspensions and expulsions of Barnard students, calling on behalf of the AAUP for colleges to “involve the faculty, students and the staff in the robust protection of debate and inquiry.”

On the date of its publication, the title of Rosenbury’s essay in The New York Times was changed from “Now Is the Time for Colleges to Host Difficult Speakers” to “Charlie Kirk Challenged College Students. We Need More Like Him.” It is unclear when it was changed back to its original version.