Nearly two months after the University of Missouri canceled the Legion of Black Collegians' "Black 2 Class Block Party," Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, spoke at a seminar hosted by MU's Open Minds Initiative, on Wednesday.
The seminar took place at the State Historical Society of Missouri.
FIRE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending free speech both on and off college campuses across the country. While the organization has worked with MU in the past, it was critical of the University's decision to cancel the legion's event in August.
"When public lands or facilities are open for speech to the public, you can't then turn around and restrict some groups or some people from speaking based on either the content of what they want to say or their viewpoint. That's just the constitutional standard for public forums," said Jessie Appleby, a member of FIRE's program counsel.
Appleby said FIRE reached out to MU to tell it that it restricted speech by cancelling the event. In a letter FIRE received back, MU stood by its initial claims that the event's name suggested it was racially exclusive, which gave it a right to cancel it.
"What is somewhat ironic about the whole situation is the event was scheduled to be held in the Gaines Oldham Black Culture Center, which is the name of a facility on the University of Missouri campus. It seems odd that the university would have a problem with the use of the word Black in an event name, when its own facility has Black in its name," Appleby said.
At the event, Lukianoff opened with statistics that supported free speech being under attack, such as a sharp increase in scholar sanction attempts and de-platforming attempts in 2025.
"The goal of the Open Minds Initiative is to bring more conversations, more viewpoint diversity, to try to push back on the problem of polarization that's effecting everybody, to find common ground and to learn to embrace the fact that we have differences," said Brian Kisida, director of MU's Open Minds Initiative.
After an opening statement, Lucianoff sat down with Kisida for general conversation about free speech.
Kisida said he first reached out to Lukianoff over a year ago. They have been planning this event since then.
"I think issues around free speech and expression have only gotten more popular in that last year. He's a really busy guy, and we're lucky to have him," Kisida said.
In FIRE's annual College Free Speech Rankings, MU currently ranks 16 out of 257 schools, up 113 spots since 2024. Its website said two of the school's biggest free speech issues are self-censorship and lack of comfort expressing ideas.
