Robert J. Zimmer, Who Promoted Free Speech on Campus, Dies at 75

Robert J. Zimmer, a mathematician who as president of the University of Chicago championed diversity not only quantitatively, in the recruitment of students and faculty, but also by protecting free expression on campus with a protocol that was later embraced by dozens of colleges across the country, died on Tuesday at his home in Chicago. He was 75.

His wife, Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, a classics professor at the university, said the cause was glioblastoma multiforme, a virulent form of brain cancer.

Mr. Zimmer, who presided over the university from 2006 to...