Repressing Free Speech: A Mission On Far Too Many College Campuses
If you know anyone in academia, professor or student, you know what a chill there is in free speech on campuses.
I just read Greg Lukianoff's excellent book, "Unlearning Liberty," which is PACKED, cover to cover with examples -- examples I wish that were made up, because they're so wildly and terribly wrong in terms of both our Constitution and the cultural principles our country is based on.
And Greg is right -- the issue goes way beyond the particular campus speech violations they've fought. The chill (and prohibitions) on dissent on college campuses lead to a societal chill on free speech, and left and right being opposed in ugly ways because there's no means of or training in how to have a debate. (If there's no possibly upsetting speech allowed, you can't get practice speaking to people who disagree with you.)
Greg writes in a NYT op-ed about the disgusting chill on free speech on college campuses (often in the name of protecting college students' terribly delicate feelings):
Colleges and universities are supposed to be bastions of unbridled inquiry and expression, but they probably do as much to repress free speech as any other institution in young people's lives. In doing so, they discourage civic engagement at a time when debates over deficits and taxes should make young people pay more attention, not less.Since the 1980s, in part because of "political correctness" concerns about racially insensitive speech and sexual harassment, and in part because of the dramatic expansion in the ranks of nonfaculty campus administrators, colleges have enacted stringent speech codes. These codes are sometimes well intended but, outside of the ivory tower, would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. From protests and rallies to displays of posters and flags, students have been severely constrained in their ability to demonstrate their beliefs. The speech codes are at times intended to enforce civility, but they often backfire, suppressing free expression instead of allowing for open debate of controversial issues.
...In a study of 392 campus speech codes last year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, where I work, found that 65 percent of the colleges had policies that in our view violated the Constitution's guarantee of the right to free speech. (While the First Amendment generally prohibits public universities from restricting nondisruptive free speech, private colleges are not state actors and therefore have more leeway to establish their own rules.)
Some elite colleges in particular have Orwellian speech codes that are so vague and broad that they would never pass constitutional muster at state-financed universities. Harvard is a particularly egregious example. Last year, incoming Harvard freshmen were pressured by campus officials to sign an oath promising to act with "civility" and "inclusiveness" and affirming that "kindness holds a place on par with intellectual attainment." Harry R. Lewis, a computer science professor and a former dean of Harvard College, was quick to criticize the oath. "For Harvard to 'invite' people to pledge to kindness is unwise, and sets a terrible precedent," he wrote on his blog. "It is a promise to control one's thoughts."
...Elsewhere, rules that aim for inclusiveness do more to confuse students than to encourage debate. Earlier this year, Vanderbilt prohibited student groups (if they wished to receive university support and financing) from barring students from leadership positions based on their beliefs. The apparent goal was to prevent evangelical Christian groups from excluding gay students from leadership positions -- but the policy also means that a Democrat could be elected as an officer of the College Republicans.
...For reasons both good and bad -- and sometimes for mere administrative convenience -- colleges have promulgated speech codes that are not only absurd in their results but also detrimental to the ideals of free inquiry. Students can't learn how to navigate democracy and engage with their fellow citizens if they are forced to think twice before they speak their mind.
Greg is president of theFIRE.org, the wonderful organization that defends free speech on college campuses. I recommend his book: Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate
Here's a wonderful review of the book in Psych Today, by Izzy Kalman:
Throughout Unlearning Liberty, Lukianoff documents the injustices committed by universities in their efforts to eradicate offensive speech and the resulting damage to students' ability to think critically and control their emotions. But one of Lukianoff's most startling discoveries in his years of work for FIRE is that speech codes that are designed to protect students are used most often by administrators to protect themselves. As in all totalitarian police states, they use the codes to punish students and faculty that dare to criticize the administration! Surveys have indeed confirmed that the majority of university professors do not feel safe to express themselves freely.I, as the world's most persistent critic of antibullyism, have experienced first hand the very issues Lukianoff writes about. I have seen how this movement meant to promote tolerance is promoting intolerance (just read the comments to my Psychology Today blog); how the effort to promote social justice is resulting in injustice; how academic journals refuse to publish anything that challenges the orthodox approach to bullying despite its obvious failure; how people have learned to use accusations of being offended or bullied as a tactic to win arguments and stifle debate; how vague terms such as "harassment" and "bullying" allow schools to punish children for engaging in constitutionally protected behaviors; how anti-bullying laws have outlawed humor; how teaching children that words can cause them irreparable harm is fostering a generation of emotionally vulnerable children who have little ability to handle the ordinary stings of life.
And that's why I am so excited by Unlearning Liberty. I hope it becomes a runaway best seller so society can begin saving itself from its well meaning but misguided attempt to protect people's feelings. To create educational policies and laws that maximize human wellbeing and achievement, we need to be guided by legal scholars like Lukianoff who understand the philosophy of law and appreciate the brilliance of our Constitution rather than by legally naïve social scientists lobbying the government to promote their own scientifically questionable political agendas. No serious legal scholar would endorse the idea that we can create a society in which no one exerts any power over anyone else by invoking the power of the government to punish anyone who exerts power over anyone else. That is a recipe for a totalitarian police state.
If wish I were capable of writing a review that does justice to this book, which is packed full of valuable insights and revelations, and written with an eloquence and depth I can only envy. Go out and buy it. The profits go to FIRE, so that Lukianoff and staff can continue doing their essential work.
And if you live in LA, do come to the LA Press Club event for Greg's book on November 29 at 7pm. It's free -- you just need to RSVP at the link (and then click on the EventBrite link at the bottom of the FIRE blog item).
I'd love to attend, but I don't want my fourth amendment rights violated to fly to L.A.
Jim P. at November 4, 2012 5:55 AM
So, what common demonimator do these repressive colleges have?
Any of them run by self-declared conservatives, or are they holier-then-thou missionaries determined to bring you to political correctness?
Radwaste at November 4, 2012 6:13 AM
Nicht einmal die Gedanken sind frei... Indoctrination at U-Delaware:
http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/6940.html
david foster at November 4, 2012 6:53 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/11/04/lukianoff.html#comment-3423302">comment from david fosterDisgusting -- the indoctrination program at U-Del. Greg writes about a number of these programs, with Resident Advisors directed to indoctrinate people living in the dorms, in Unlearning Liberty. Chilling stuff. Very Soviet.
Amy Alkon
at November 4, 2012 7:08 AM
You are the best, Amy!
Also, I see someone mentioned our insane case at U Delaware. Here is the full video about that case: http://bit.ly/U22Dek
But I could only really do what was going on in there justice in the book.
And here is an updated interview with Jan Blits as well as 4 other crazy cases: http://bit.ly/SG2gZY
Greg Lukianoff at November 4, 2012 7:19 AM
Having looked at the Unlearning Liberty site, I conclude that the common denominator is stupidity - fostered by an environment that does not require one to actually produce to be paid.
The signal/noise ratio in most protests is very low. People seek to prohibit someone from speaking without actually hearing their message. Substituting actual content with that from a favored blowhard.
Dumb.
Radwaste at November 4, 2012 8:43 AM
I'd suggest that anyone thinking about making a contribution to their alma mater....do a little research on that institution's record on free speech, and consider giving the money to FIRE instead.
(And even if your old school is one of the relatively few good ones on this metric, FIRE still deserves support, because their are plenty of bad universities. Indeed, American universities have been referred to as "islands of tyranny in a sea of freedom."
david foster at November 4, 2012 8:43 AM
Good editorial. This sounds like an eye-opener book.
I'd suggest that anyone thinking about making a contribution to their alma mater....do a little research on that institution's record on free speech, and consider giving the money to FIRE instead.
Good suggestion. I learned that my alma mater revised their sexual harassment speech codes recently because of FIRE. I might donate a couple pesos.
I was also interested to learn that one of my history seminar professors co-wrote an editorial in the LA Times a couple months ago about politicized classrooms in the University of California school system. Maybe they subscribe to FIRE.
Jason S. at November 4, 2012 12:30 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/11/04/lukianoff.html#comment-3423771">comment from Jason S.Do go to the LA Press Club party. Greg will talk there, and I've heard him before (and talked to him at dinner parties when he's been out here), and he's a fascinating speaker. By the way, he's personally a Democrat, but does not discriminate in who he defends. You just have to be hammered by some university's speech codes or otherwise discriminated against (vis a vis your civil liberties) and he and FIRE will defend you, pro bono. This is important because students often can barely muster money for Top Ramen, and would otherwise cave to awful policies. And each defense is effectively a defense of all of us -- of our civil liberties and of the sort of society that has open debate and exchange of ideas.
This is why FIRE is the most important cause to me - and Institute for Justice is another very important one.
Amy Alkon
at November 4, 2012 12:42 PM
Amy, I'm dismayed. You're blog does not have any button that I can click to "like" your previous comment!
Shannon M. Howell at November 4, 2012 2:01 PM
"I have seen how this movement meant to promote tolerance is promoting intolerance..."
Promiting tolerance was never, ever the intent. The intent always was, from the get-go, to suppress speech and thought. The Left's march through the institutions has been spectacularly successful in the academy, to the point where there are very few places of higher learning you can go to where you won't have some form of Marxism presented as being the ultimate and only truth.
If I were seeking higher education today, I would not waste my time on any conventional institution. I'd take classes online, where I can choose the ones I think I need and skip the indoctrination. Then, in order to have the magic ticket, I'd get a degree from a diploma mill. Some employers might recognize the degree as being from a mill and reject me, but a lot won't.
Cousin Dave at November 5, 2012 6:19 AM
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