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Speaking Freely: What Students Think About Self-Expression at American Colleges
Zinhead
Registered User Posts: 2,610 Senior Member
A new survey by FIRE investigates what students think about self-expression on campus.
https://www.thefire.org/new-survey-majority-of-college-students-self-censor-support-disinvitations-dont-know-hate-speech-is-protected-by-first-amendment/
The complete survey is here:
https://www.thefire.org/publications/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey-full-text/
https://www.thefire.org/new-survey-majority-of-college-students-self-censor-support-disinvitations-dont-know-hate-speech-is-protected-by-first-amendment/
A new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education finds a majority of students on college campuses self-censor in class, support disinviting some guest speakers with whom they disagree, and don’t know that hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.
The complete survey is here:
https://www.thefire.org/publications/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey-full-text/
This discussion has been closed.
Replies to: Speaking Freely: What Students Think About Self-Expression at American Colleges
Seems like lots of students across the political spectrum support freedom of speech only in an ideologically selective manner (i.e. free speech for those they agree with, not for those they disagree with). Not surprising, and probably not all that different from non-students.
That's the bigger question. Has FIRE looked into that?
I do not believe for a minute there is MORE actual bonafide hate speech - I think as a society people have gotten much more sensitive about labeling things as such that are NOT.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter for those who want to judge for themselves.
The Koch Brothers are the biggest financial backers of FIRE both directly and through other foundations they fund.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Foundation_for_Individual_Rights_in_Education
@ucbalumnus Thanks for pointing out parts of the report that show that students that lean Blue seem to be more tolerant of an important right of free speech - the freedom to protest.
The actual article also said that 87% felt comfortable sharing their opinions in the classroom and 86% outside the classroom. Even though fewer conservative students felt comfortable sharing their opinions outside the classroom, 82% still felt comfortable. The most common reason for students not wanting to share their opinion was"that they thought they might be incorrect or mistaken" (53%), although many also thought they might be judged or would offend someone.
Not sure that self-censoring to avoid offending someone is necessarily a bad thing in all cases. It really depends on whether the opinion is one that would offend because it is different or if it is one that puts down another group. The latter may be considered being polite, rather than self-censoring.
It seems the "free speech free speech!!" contingent is very capable of shutting down speech it doesn't like as well.
And no, there is absolutely no equivalence between Chelsea Manning not getting to be a visiting fellow and half of college students believing that "hate speech" is not protected by the 1st amendment.
It is troubling that so many students believe they can shut don't speech they consider 'hate' which is clearly subjective anyway -- oh the slippery slope
This specific study was funded by the John Templeton Fdn, a reputable group.
https://www.thefire.org/publications/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey/student-attitudes-free-speech-survey-full-text/
Not sure its fair to criticize the authors for the book that they did not write.