Press Release - The International Freedom Center

April, 2005

Leading Universities Will Provide Evening Programming

The International Freedom Center and the Aspen Institute are working together to create a new Consortium that will include some of the leading universities in New York City, the United States and the world, and will provide much of the evening cultural and educational programming in the Center's building at the World Trade Center site.

Participating universities will include the City University of New York, Columbia University, New School University, New York University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Cape Town, the University of Oxford, Princeton University and Yale University. Other institutions will be enlisted for the Consortium in the months to come, and some universities might join the Consortium for a single year on a rotating basis.

Its cultural and educational programs will make the Center a place of lively and important dialogue – a new and permanent “Public Square” on hallowed ground -- where matters of public concern will be placed in new light. Cultural and educational programming will include university-sponsored seminars and lecture series, civic conferences and workshops, films and film series, symposia relating to historical and contemporary freedom issues, and a wide range of Lower Manhattan local community events.

These programs will dominate the Center’s evening activities. Types and sizes of audience will vary with the nature of specific programs. Nearly every evening at the International Freedom Center, leading scholars, political leaders, civic activists and engaged citizens from around the world will participate in the Center’s programming.

Freedom as a concept is inherently complex, holding differentmeanings for different people, and presenting tensions with other important human values. To explore these themes thoughtfully and intelligently, the International Freedom Center must create a protected space in which sensitive, controversial and provocative subjects can be candidly explored, yet in a manner that does not generate political distraction from the Center’s work, or reflect on donors or even on the Center itself.

The character of a university allows for this form of “sacred space.” John Sexton, the president of New York University, describes the role of the great universities as “modern sanctuaries…sustaining and enhancing scholarship, creativity, and learning.” Universities, Sexton believes, have a special “commitment to free, unbridled, and ideologically unconstrained discourse in which claims of knowledge are examined, confirmed, deepened or replaced.” This commitment parallels the Center’s own commitment to a full and open exchange of ideas. President Sexton helped conceive the new Consortium.

The Consortium—assembled and managed by the International Freedom Center and the Aspen Institute-- will develop the core programming for this ambitious and vital new forum. The Aspen Institute will also produce its own programming for the Center, and a limited number of other non-university entities may be invited to join the Consortium as well. It is projected that roughly 12 university-members of the Consortium will be allotted 5-15 evenings each for programming over the course of a year, although details may vary somewhat from one participating institution to another. Under the auspices of the Center, each member of the Consortium will organize lectures, conferences, and other programs of its own devising that engage people in dialogue and debate on freedom—freedom tomorrow, freedom yesterday, and freedom today. Events will invite worldwide participation through live webcasts and be archived on the Center’s web site for enduring global distribution; many will be broadcast on television and radio as well.

Having so many programmers will insure a diversity of programming, both substantively and stylistically. Some evenings will see the Center hosting lectures, others panels, seminars, debates, conferences, films or symposia; variations in format should help spur creativity. Providing educational and cultural programs tailored to different audiences—and to audiences also of varying sizes—will promote both intimate investigations of the personal meanings of freedom and wider explorations of freedom’s historical, contemporary and philosophical scope. This wide range of programming embodies the essence of a free and open society, one that allows for the fluid expression of varying perspectives and ideas. Indeed, reflecting on the Center’s creation of the Consortium, City University Chancellor Matthew Goldstein wrote that, “The International Freedom Center will reflect the sprit of New York City itself—receptive and gracious to all.”

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