RealClearPolitics Publishes Vartanian ’20 Column on Freedom of Speech

The national political news analysis website RealClearPolitics has published an essay on freedom of speech by Lily Vartanian ’20. Vartanian’s piece was the winner of an essay contest on the relationship between liberal education and freedom of speech sponsored by Assumption’s Core Texts and Enduring Questions (CTEQ) program.

For the essay contest, students were challenged to explore how a liberal education that includes the serious study of Core Texts, as Assumption does, enables the appreciation of the invaluable role that freedom of speech needs to play in an authentic liberal education. The essays were judged by three Assumption faculty. Because of its timely and important message, Vartanian’s essay, which was chosen as the winner among a number of essays written her fellow students, was published by RealClearPolitics. 

“Freedom of speech has traditionally been recognized as a necessary and vital component of an intellectually serious college education,” said Marc Guerra, Ph.D., director of Assumption’s CTEQ program and professor of theology.  “We increasingly read about chilling efforts to shut down genuine debate about complex and controversial human questions on American college campuses.  This effort knows no strict or uniform party or disciplinary allegiance; it tempts students, faculty, and administrators across the political and cultural spectrum.”

Assumption’s CTEQ program sponsors a number of engaging lectures and essay contests and provides students opportunities to participate in research conferences, as well as travel to explore influential cities throughout the United States and Europe. Assumption offers a minor in the CTEQ program that incorporates courses in art history, theology, philosophy and political science.