A quiet orthodoxy has settled over Columbia—once a place where disagreement was a virtue and students, researchers, and professors came together in a joint striving for truth. Today, many are afraid to speak out. Speakers are shouted down, and conformity is rewarded over courage.

Neither students nor faculty should feel unable to express reasoned, well-argued beliefs for fear their peers will shut them down. If Columbia is to continue to thrive, it must sustain an environment where people are willing to listen to one another. The most innovative ideas often arrive sounding shocking or offensive. That is the nature of progress. There is no growth in what everyone already agrees to be true.

The Columbia Free Speech Alliance (CFSA) was founded in 2022 by a group of alumni concerned about viewpoint diversity and free speech on the Columbia campus, to challenge that drift.  Columbia Free Speech Alliance is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, so donations are tax deductible.

We aim to restore something essential: a Columbia where students, professors, and invited guests can speak, debate, and present new ideas without fear.

We are writers, professors, lawyers, students, donors, thinkers. Some of us are lifelong progressives. Some are not. But we are united by one belief: that only through free expression can Columbia fulfill its purpose of advancing knowledge.

We work with national organizations leading the defense of campus free speech, including FIRE, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and the Academic Freedom Alliance. CFSA is an affiliate of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance—a growing network of alumni from 28 top universities, among them Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Chicago. We aim to complement, not replicate, the work of other Columbia-based free speech efforts.

Join us to connect, act, and help reclaim Columbia’s tradition of fearless inquiry. This is a defining moment—for the university, and for everyone who still believes in its promise.