University of St Andrews Chancellorship

St Andrews Chancellorship: AFFS and FSU recommend alumni to vote for free speech candidates

St Andrews alumni can use their vote in the upcoming election for the Chancellorship of St Andrews University to support candidates who stand for the protection of free speech, and thus demonstrate that free speech matters to alumni. We urge all St Andrews alumni to vote for a strong free speech candidate.

We wrote in January to the candidates requesting information about their position on free speech. Two of the four candidates gave detailed responses to our questions. The other candidates, however, only referred us to their previous statements on the matter. Based on AFFS’ review and analysis of candidates’ responses, the candidates for the Chancellorship who AFFS and The Free Speech Union jointly recommend to those who care about free speech are (in alphabetical order):

Lord (Mark) Sedwill; and

Lady (Alex) Walmsley

Effective use of alternative votes is likely to be critical. Ideally, both candidates will be high in the list of those who care about free speech. Even if alumni do not wish to vote for both of the above candidates, we recommend that they ensure that an alternative vote goes to one of them.

Please see our dedicated Voting in St Andrews Chancellor Election page for detailed information including our statement on the merits of the candidates from a free speech perspective.

Our detailed statement on this can be found here. This contains detailed information on our questions and each candidate’s responses, and an evaluation of the candidates’ apparent suitability from a purely free speech perspective. Those who care about free speech may find some responses very encouraging, and some a bit depressing.

What you can do:

• vote for a strong free speech candidate, and make sure the other is high on your list of alternatives.
• share this with your friends who are St Andrews graduates and care about free speech.