Meet the 2025-26 DFTD Scholarship Recipients

Please join us in congratulating the 2025-26 recipients of the Robert Murray Scholarship for Excellence in Free Expression! These three exceptional students, each receiving a $2,500 scholarship, embody the values of DFTD in promoting open inquiry and civil dialogue at Davidson.


Robert F. Murray was a founding member of Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse (DFTD) and a central figure in shaping its mission. His belief in free expression, viewpoint diversity, and open dialogue was instrumental to the organization’s founding and early success. In recognition of his lasting impact, DFTD established the Robert Murray Scholarship for Excellence in Free Expression to support students who embody the values he championed: intellectual courage, respectful dialogue, and a commitment to expanding the range of ideas at Davidson College.


We at DFTD are proud to support Stephen, Arshi, and Jonathan in their continued efforts to uphold these values in the Davidson community.


Stephen Walker '26

Class Year: 2026


Major: Political Science and English Double Major


Davidson Activities:

  • College Republicans President
  • Deliberative Citizenship Initiative Co-Convener and Senior Fellow
  • Review Board Student Representative
  • Founder of Davidson Political Review (Student Newspaper)
  • PreLaw Society Alumni Relations Chair


About Stephen:


An instrumental figure in reenergizing political discourse on campus, Stephen leads with a collaborative spirit. He played a key role in organizing the long-standing tradition of the Phi-Eu Hall presidential debate in 2024. As President of the College Republicans, Stephen has worked with DFTD to bring conservative speakers to campus including Congressman Greg Murphy ‘85 in March of 2024 and Jeremy Carl, who now serves in the Trump Administration as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, in March 2025.


Stephen believes that democracy and intellectual progress depend on the open exchange of competing ideas. He is committed to advocating for a campus culture where disagreement is not only tolerated but valued as essential to learning. Stephen’s openness to dialogue in his work with the Deliberative Citizen Initiative and respect for opposing views have made him a trusted voice across campus.


We are grateful for Stephen’s courage and persistence in expanding the boundaries of free expression at Davidson, and we look forward to seeing the impact of his work in the years to come.

Arshi Husain '26

Class Year: 2026


Major: Economics and Philosophy double major


Davidson Activities:

  • Davidson Investment and Finance Association Administrative Director
  • Senior Admission Fellow
  • Deliberative Citizenship Initiative Senior Fellow
  • Chidsey Leadership Program Fellow and Application Grading Chair
  • The Davidsonian Newspaper Features Editor and writer


About Arshi:


Having grown up in Pakistan and now pursuing her education in the United States, Arshi brings a global perspective to conversations about free expression. She has seen firsthand how the suppression of dissent can erode trust. At Davidson, she has also witnessed how ideological conformity and fear of social retaliation can limit the exchange of ideas.


Yet rather than retreat, Arshi continues to push for spaces where disagreement can lead to deeper understanding. A rising Senior Fellow with the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative, Arshi has previously led and co-organized campus forums on polarizing issues, most notably a discussion on transgender medical policy in 2024 that brought together students from across the political spectrum.


Whether through op-eds, forums, or direct conversations with those who disagree with her, Arshi argues that democracy demands the freedom to challenge, reason, and coexist. Her intellectual courage and her determination to make Davidson a campus where truth-seeking transcends identity and political orthodoxy are admirable qualities that we are proud to support.


Jonathan Jarecki '28

Class Year: 2028


Major: Biology


Davidson Activities:

  • Free Speech Alliance President
  • Host of Whole Health Podcast
  • Reformed University Fellowship


About Jonathan:


Jonathan (Jono)’s commitment to free expression is grounded in his Christian faith and scientific curiosity. As incoming President of the Free Speech Alliance, Jono has emerged as a thoughtful advocate for viewpoint diversity and respectful conversation across lines of difference. In partnership with the Free Speech Alliance and DFTD, he helped bring a visiting biologist to campus in March of 2025, demonstrating his belief that academic inquiry must remain open to challenge from all angles.


Outside the classroom, Jono has consistently created spaces where students can wrestle with complex questions, from founding a startup protein bar company (Forward) to hosting The Whole Health Podcast. His interdisciplinary mindset reflects a conviction that meaningful understanding emerges when science, faith, and philosophy are brought into one conversation.


For Jono, free speech is not just a civic right, but it is a sacred responsibility tied to our human nature and capacity for reason. He works to model the kind of humility and clarity that make genuine disagreement possible in everyday conversations. We look forward to continuing our work with Jono and the Free Speech Alliance this year to support a culture of open inquiry on campus.

Where Liberty and Learning Endure

June 29, 2026
As America commemorates 250 years of independence, we reflect on the enduring principles of liberty and learning that have defined Davidson College for nearly two centuries.

Bankruptcy and Higher Education

June 21, 2026
By Todd Zywicki The Wall Street Journal June 21, 2026 Auburn University is known for its agricultural and STEM programs, its flight school and athletic programs. But the land-grant university recently became notable for another reason: The board of trustees is taking control of the school back from its faculty. The board began seizing the university’s academic programs—including curriculum, course offerings, degree requirements and academic credentials—at its June 5 meeting. The board also dissolved the faculty senate and replaced it with an advisory council to the president, which includes two faculty members from each of the university’s colleges and additional members appointed by the president. The board’s assertion of authority mirrors incoming mandates by the Alabama Legislature restricting the role of faculty senates in the state’s public university system. Predictably, Auburn’s faculty has responded with howls of outrage, decrying these intrusions on the faculty’s authority over academic operations. How could outsiders appointed through a political process have the expertise to make such delicate decisions? I’ve been a professor at a state university for almost 30 years, and I am sympathetic up to a point. But before becoming a professor I was a bankruptcy lawyer. And bankruptcy law teaches an important lesson for how academia can respond to this moment. Bankruptcy gives businesses an opportunity to admit mistakes, reform and emerge stronger. Successful enterprises don’t need bankruptcy lawyers. But when an enterprise loses its way, it goes into receivership. Most universities aren’t financially bankrupt but have lost their mission and direction. Society has long recognized certain institutions’ authority to manage their own affairs. Two notable examples are licensed professionals—such as doctors and lawyers—and universities. Universities, even state universities, have run their enterprises with minimal external oversight. Faculties enjoyed substantial rights of self-governance because they committed to higher standards than those required by ordinary jobs. Professors would establish and maintain standards of scholarly integrity, freedom of speech and inquiry, and rigorous dedication to merit-based assessment of research in specialized areas. They policed their own house, enforcing norms of truth-seeking, maintaining scholarly integrity and rigor, and ensuring that students emerged with basic knowledge, employable skills and civic competency. But over the past several decades, commitment to those values collapsed. Surveys by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression consistently reveal fear among students and faculty around expressing unfashionable ideas. Universities have seen shout-downs, cancellations and even violence against speakers. Merit and quality yielded to “diversity” and “equity.” Truth-seeking has been displaced by faddish theories and ideologically charged teaching and research. Professors design esoteric departments and teach niche classes to cliques of activist students while the needs of other students and taxpayers for real education go unaddressed. Like companies I represented, universities have lost their way. And many have proved either unable or unwilling to self-correct. When that happens, it is appropriate to put institutions into receivership until they reform and rededicate themselves to their mission. At Auburn incoming students must now take certain required civics and history courses to master basic competency in U.S. history and government. To ensure the classes actually meet that objective, professors will have to make their syllabi publicly available. In the classroom, instructors will be expected to stick to the matter at hand and avoid free-ranging political punditry. Just as other companies can learn from the ones that go bankrupt, other institutions of higher education can learn something from Auburn: Fix what’s broken, or someone else might fix it for you. Mr. Zywicki is a professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. He was a Dartmouth College trustee, 2005-09. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bankruptcy-and-higher-education-4c2b178e

Race Preferences Are Falling Nationwide

June 19, 2026
By the Editorial Board The Wall Street Journal June 19, 2026 The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against racial preferences is turning out to be a landmark with profound consequences as its influence spreads. On Thursday the famously progressive Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a state program that issued scholarships based on race violates the U.S. Constitution. Justice Annette Ziegler wrote for the court that the Constitution requires “that every person ‘must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race,’” and that the state cannot “use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens.” That must have been painful for the activist liberal majority on the court. In a concurrence, Wisconsin Chief Justice Jill Karofsky took some shots at Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College (2023) before acknowledging that “I am bound by the precedent set forth in SFFA” and other Supreme Court rulings “when interpreting the Fourteenth Amendment.” The case was brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty against a 1985 Badger State law that reserved need-based scholarships through a grant program for “Black American,” “American Indian,” “Hispanic” and some Southeast Asian undergraduate students enrolled in Wisconsin’s private and technical colleges. Last week the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a scholarship program earmarked for black University of Iowa students studying physical sciences was “impracticable” under SFFA. State governments would be wise to repeal these discriminatory grant programs, or the courts will do it for them.
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