The University of Virginia was once a hub of debate and academic excellence. Today, Mr. Jefferson’s university joins Columbia, Harvard, and many other campuses that are struggling to maintain a culture of civil dialogue — particularly on the hot button issue of Israel and Palestine.

On Tuesday, May 14, The Jefferson Council’s Jim Bacon kicked off our inaugural virtual series by sitting down with citizen journalist Stu Smith to discuss the condition of free speech on university campuses across the US, why it’s important to capture and distribute multiple sides of each story, and what this looks like in practice at UVA specifically.

Stu’s coverage of student protests has generated millions of impressions on social media. He scours the web and infiltrates digital classrooms to highlight the alarming things that faculty, staff, and protesters do and say. Most recently, he played a vital role in exposing the Columbia Resistance 101 event. Elon Musk has even engaged with Stu’s reporting.

Thank you to all who attended this virtual event.