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Key Takeaways
- The University of Arkansas at Little Rock canceled two history lectures on racism due to concerns about potential censorship and scrutiny from state officials, as revealed in a memo from professor Barclay Key.
- The canceled lectures were part of a collaboration with the University History Institute, which operates independently but faced pressure regarding compliance with the Arkansas ACCESS Act that restricts certain discussions about race and diversity.
- Free speech advocates criticized the university's actions, urging it to uphold First Amendment rights and support faculty in their academic pursuits amid an environment of administrative interference and fear of political repercussions.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock canceled two history lectures on racism and racial equity scheduled for this semester due to concerns about potential censorship and scrutiny from state officials.
University spokesperson Carrie Phillips told The College Fix that the canceled lectures and seminars were part of a combined effort between UA Little Rock’s history department and a nonprofit called University History Institute.
She said that the History Institute’s event notices were “temporarily removed” from its promotional platforms.
She also said that the University History Institute is a separate organization that “serves in an advisory capacity to the university and may independently host events.”
The university is currently reviewing its place and participation in the lecture series to ensure “compliance with applicable legislation,” she said.
“Conversations are ongoing,” Phillips said.
According to a December memo obtained by the Arkansas Times, administrators were concerned that two events could draw scrutiny from state officials. The memo was written by UALR professor Barclay Key and sent to Faculty Senate President Angela Hunter.
The events included a February lecture on race and the death penalty and an April talk from historian David Roediger about his memoir, “An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education.”
In the memo, Key said he was contacted by a college staff member to set up a meeting with Dean Jeremy Ecke and the university’s general counsel, Charles Lyford, to discuss the lecture series sponsored by the University History Institute.
At the Dec. 17, 2025 meeting, “Lyford expressed concern that Dr. Roediger, a historian at the University of Kansas who will be paid an honorarium by the UHI, might speak of ‘collective guilt,’” Key wrote in the memo.
“However, the law does not prohibit a contractor from speaking of that concept; the law says that a contractor ‘shall not compel’ someone affiliated with the university to ‘affirm, adopt, or adhere’ to that concept,” he wrote.
In light of those concerns, Ecke and Lyford suggested changing the lecture titles to “echo language” of the 2025 Arkansas ACCESS Act. Key refused, stating that the law allows discussion of controversial topics.
The ACCESS Act aims, in part, to restrict certain DEI-related requirements at state-supported universities.
During the same meeting, Lyford also explained that the University History Institute’s nonprofit status with the state had been dissolved, though it continues to operate informally. Key said he had understood the institute to be separate from both the department and the university.
Ecke later said the lecture series information needed to be removed from the university website. Key opposed this decision, but the content was taken down on Dec. 19. As a result, he resigned as department chair on Jan. 7.
In response to the controversy, Graham Piro, faculty legal defense fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The College Fix that FIRE urges the school to “uphold its First Amendment obligations amid … the cancellation of these lectures.”
Piro added that free speech on campus is harmed by administrative interference in modifying lecture content. He recommended that the school educate administrators on the laws governing free speech to avoid such situations in the future.
The free speech expert also said that while the university should ensure its compliance with applicable laws, those laws should also respect the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Further, the administration should reassure faculty members that the university will stand by those rights.
“In a time of heightened political tension over campus speech, faculty need to know that their institutions stand on the side of free speech, not censorship,” Piro told The Fix.
Similarly, in a news and analysis article updated on Jan. 24, Arkansas Times journalist Austin Gelder wrote that “Academic freedom has pretty much left the building at Arkansas’s public universities.”
“Arkansas’s prohibition on critical race theory and ban on progressive indoctrination in classrooms” doesn’t mean the lectures and seminars were illegal, yet university leadership still “cowered in advance,” Gelder wrote.
