On April 21, the Deans of the GSB issued a statement announcing their plans to go ahead with Pace's talk. The statement says that the idea of retracting Gen. Pace's invitation to speak "goes against principles of free speech, which we value greatly," and cited the University's "Kalven report" concerning social and political action.
The 1967 Kalven report pre-dates the University of Chicago's current nondiscrimination policy. We're thankful, as GLBT people and their allies at the University, that the officials who approved the latter policy didn't consider themselves bound by the Kalven report.
We also question whether the goal of neutrality can really be an infallible guide in the present situation. If the GSB had scheduled a keynote address by Ann Coulter or Don Imus, before they made their "faggot" and "nappy-headed ho" comments respectively, we think the deans would reconsider whether they merited the honor of giving a keynote address. Martin Luther King, Jr. once had something to say about "those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict."
Free Speech
While we, too, highly value freedom of speech, and we are deeply concerned about the way that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy directly interferes with the free speech rights of Americans in uniform, we believe a distinction must be made between speech, on the one hand, and the extension of a platform for speech, on the other.
The GSB Deans have not proposed any programming, in a forum equivalent to that being afforded Pace in prestige, scale, or cost, that would address the status of GLBT people in management or business, or any other step that might ameliorate the immediate, concrete, and profound effects of Pace's talk on the climate for GLBT community members, both in and out of the closet.