Primer: Political Free Speech on College Campuses
Pro-Palestine protests have erupted on college campuses across the country, including our own. These demonstrations have been an enormous source of controversy as protestors have clashed with police, university administrators, and many in the Jewish community. Some of these schools are public, while others are private, so the free speech protections have varied. Local governments have shaped policy responses to protests at public colleges – for example, Texas used state troopers to disperse a crowd – but private schools have more discretion. This brings us to this week’s Political Union debate resolution: Universities should regulate political speech on campus.
The pro argument centers around the safety of students. Political speech can lead to the harm and abuse of other students. On the Israel-Palestine issue, hateful images and antisemitic speech at protests have targeted the Jewish community. Schools should be protecting their students from this sort of abuse. It also brings outsiders to campus in potentially unsafe ways, which can put a target on the backs of students. Political speech on campus is also a distraction from the real goals of an academic institution, too: to educate people. Students who hear protests while in class or the library, or even just have to devote mental energy worrying about a protest, are facing unfair treatment.
The con argument has strong arguments, though. The right to free speech is an integral aspect of higher education, so administrations should always lean toward protecting free speech rights. Liberal education is founded on the principle of free speech so that political ideas and thoughts can be spitballed and tweaked and improved. Colleges are composed of young people, who often hold the most radical social ideals. Suppressing political free speech would change these key dynamics of the college experience. Regulations could prevent students from inviting speech they wish to hear, debate speech with which they disagree, and protest speech they find offensive. A protest on a controversial issue should not be shut down, it should be countered by the other side. The current Israel-Palestine issue has been a distraction for many, but it is a particularly difficult issue, and it does not change the basic facts about free speech. Regulating political speech leads our society down a dangerous road of suppressing more and more free speech, and that is a road we should not take.
Join us for the debate this Monday at 7pm in Scott Hall 201!
"Campus protest march against hate speech" by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0.