‘Chilling Effect’: Harvard Undergraduates for Academic Freedom Host Film Screening, Panel Discussion

The Harvard Undergraduates for Academic Freedom hosted a screening and panel discussion of “The Coddling of the American Mind” on Wednesday evening.

HUAF — launched last Thursday by Luka Pavikjevikj ’27, Lorenzo Z. Ruiz ’27, and Theodore W. Tobel ’27 — is not yet registered as an official Harvard student organization. Harvard professor Steven A. Pinker, a co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, sponsored the event.

The screening marked the HUAF’s inaugural event and drew a crowd of around 40 attendees. Pavikjevikj, a Crimson News editor, began the event by expressing his hope for “meaningful, open, and free dialogue” across Harvard’s campus.

Pinker echoed the sentiment, saying that “we do need a voice for the academic freedom of students that is not completely submerged with the academic freedom of faculty.”

The film, based on the 2018 New York Times best-selling book “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg C. Lukianoff and Jonathan D. Haidt, argues that current college campus policies foster overprotection and limit academic freedom — which contributes to a Gen Z mental health crisis.

Following four undergraduates at American universities, the film explores the ways in which social media; diversity, equity, and inclusion training; cancel culture on campus; and other phenomena allegedly stifle academic freedom and cultivate intellectual and emotional fragility in America’s youth.

The panel discussion following the film featured Ted Balaker and Courtney M. Balaker, co-creators of the film alongside Anthony M. Rodriguez, an associate professor at Providence College.

“You really have to pay attention to the chilling effect. The ripple is wider than the splash,” Ted Balaker said, warning that cancel culture has caused many to silence themselves to avoid repercussions.

Rodriguez agreed with Balaker, saying that “professors self-censor much more actively in the past four or five years.”

Balaker also criticized members of older generations, like himself, for their role in the mental health crisis facing Gen Z.

“I have more compassion for Gen Zers,” he said in an interview. “If they’re snowflakes, then we’re the clouds.”

Pinker emphasized the need for groups like HUAF to represent student interests — which he said are often in opposition to those of the faculty — in discussions around academic freedom. He also criticized several policies and programs implemented by Harvard College, such as diversity statements for FAS faculty candidates, as well as freshman orientation.

“The freshman orientations have not been scrutinized, they have not been deliberated,” he said in an interview. “They’ve been implemented by this cadre of bureaucrats who have set up their own culture independent of scrutiny.”

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo declined to comment.

In an interview with The Crimson after the event, Ruiz, a Crimson Editorial editor, said that though he did not agree with many of the film’s arguments, he appreciated the event itself.

“I think it is part of a general push of engaging with material and engaging in conversations that make us uncomfortable,” he said. “So I think that it’s actually a beautiful thing that we were able to put on this screening.”

Ruiz also emphasized his belief that individuals from across the ideological spectrum should be able to come together to promote academic freedom.

“One of the most important parts of advocating academic freedom and intellectual diversity right now is ensuring that we have stakeholders on the left, on the right — that all of us can claim this project as ours and something that holds benefit for all of us,” he said.

Tobel pointed to the wider importance of HUAF, saying in an interview that “we ideally would love to serve as an advocacy channel for students.”

“It’s important that all students at Harvard are involved in these initiatives and decisions that are being made by the University,” he said.