The Civic Café: Testing Democracy on Campus—Expressive Activity & More

• Event Date: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
• Time: 6:00 pm–8:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk

The Civic Café is a conversation series by scholars, educators, and community advocates to advance pillars of democracy and civic education.

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Lynn Pasquerella

Lynn Pasquerella was appointed president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in 2016, after serving as the eighteenth president of Mount Holyoke College. She has held positions as Provost at the University of Hartford and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Rhode Island, where she taught for more than two decades. A philosopher whose work has combined teaching and scholarship with local and global engagement, Pasquerella has written extensively on medical ethics, metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law. Her most recent book, What We Value: Public Health, Social Justice, and Educating for Democracy, examines the role of higher education in addressing some of the most pressing contemporary issues at the intersection of ethics, law, and public policy. Pasquerella is a past president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society (2018–2021) and the host of Northeast Public Radio’s The Academic Minute.

A graduate of Quinebaug Valley Community College, Mount Holyoke College, and Brown University, her awards and honors include the President’s Award and Judith Krug Medal from Phi Beta Kappa; the William Rogers Award and the Horace Mann Medal from Brown University; the STAR Scholars Network North Star Lifetime Achievement Award; Mary Baldwin University’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Service to Humanity Award; the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences Advocacy Award; Quinebaug Valley Community College Champions Award; and the Mount Holyoke Alumni Association’s Elizabeth Topham Kennan Award. Pasquerella holds honorary degrees from Elizabethtown College, Bishop’s University, the University of South Florida, the University of Hartford, the University of Rhode Island, Concordia College, Mount Holyoke College, Bay Path University, and St. Mary’s College and was named by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education as one of America’s top 35 women leaders. She serves on the boards of the Lingnan Foundation, the National Trust for the Humanities, the Coalition for the Common Good, and Handshake.

Will Creely

Will Creely defends expressive rights and core civil liberties nationwide as Legal Director of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions (FIRE). Since 2006, Will has coordinated FIRE’s legal advocacy and oversees FIRE’s Litigation, Legislative and Policy, Policy Reform, and Targeted Advocacy departments.

A co-author of First Things First: A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals, Will’s writing has been published by The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other outlets. Will edited the second edition of FIRE’s Guide to Due Process and Campus Justice, co-edited the second edition of FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus, and has authored amicus curiae briefs submitted to courts nationwide, including the Supreme Court of the United States and multiple United States Courts of Appeals.

Barred in New York and Pennsylvania, Will is a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association and serves as co-chair of the Education Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.

Will is a 2006 graduate of New York University School of Law, where he served as an associate executive editor for the New York University Law Review. Will graduated magna cum laude from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2003. A proud native of Buffalo, New York, Will now lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.