In a long-awaited email to students on Aug. 24, 2021, LSU President William F. Tate IV announced that the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine for anyone 16 and over paved “the way for LSU to require vaccines for students, faculty and staff.”
Later that same day, a far-right vaccine skeptic appeared on political strategist Steve Bannon’s show “War Room: Pandemic” and declared that an FDA-authorized vaccine is “absolutely not available.”
Though proven false, this same line of misinformation has been the centerpiece of a Faculty Senate resolution titled “Correcting LSU’s Misquotation of the FDA’s Vaccine Letters,” sponsored by LSU professors Charles Delzell, Charles Berryman, Carol Friedland, Robert Rohli and Boris Rubin.
The resolution uses a nearly identical argument to the one introduced during Bannon’s show of misinformation. It argues that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is not FDA approved and thus the university is unable to mandate vaccinations.
This stems from the fact that, upon full approval from the FDA, Pfizer attached a brand name to its COVID-19 vaccine, as it would to any other.
“It’s the same vaccine,” Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University and former FDA deputy commissioner, told the AP. “There is only one vaccine.”
After this resolution was presented, some members of the Faculty Senate expressed concerns about resolutions based on misinformation reaching the floor. Other members felt that limiting resolutions would violate freedom of expression.
“I think if we start channeling or preventing or inhibiting the faculty voice in any way, we’re going against our promise,” Faculty Senate President Mandi Lopez said.
Though free expression should be a guiding value of any university, it’s not without its limits. When free expression is incompatible with the university’s mission of seeking truth, it has gone too far.
When future scholars here at the university study the COVID-19 pandemic, one of their biggest findings will be that misinformation planted by extreme political actors resulted in the unnecessary deaths of countless people.
LSU philosophy professor Jeffery Roland, who urged the Faculty Senate to gatekeep similar resolutions, asked that if this misinformation is allowed, “is anything beyond the pale?”
The university needs to stand as a beacon of truth. Resolutions that sow doubt in extensively researched and life-saving vaccines should not be tolerated, especially when they have no factual basis.
The Faculty Senate needs to do everything in its power to eradicate misinformation, promote truth and put scholarship first in all endeavors.  
Charlie Stephens is a 21-year-old political communication junior from Baton Rouge.