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How important is free speech on a college
campus?

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Here's what the Supreme Court said in 1957
in the landmark case Sweezy v. New Hampshire:

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"Teachers and students must always remain
free to inquire ...otherwise, our civilization

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will stagnate and die." Inspiring words. And
true... which is why what's happening at American

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colleges and universities is so disturbing.

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A study conducted by the Association of American
Colleges and Universities in 2010, revealed

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that only 30 percent of college seniors strongly
agreed with the question; "Is it safe to hold

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unpopular positions on this campus?"

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Worse, the study found that students' confidence
that that they can hold unpopular opinions

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declines from freshman to senior year. How
can it be that at the place where speech should

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be the most free, the university, young people
fear merely holding -- to say nothing of actually

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expressing -- unpopular opinions?

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The reason is that for decades now, students
have been sent a clear message from their

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schools: express dissenting opinions, violate
political correctness, or even just criticize

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the administration at your peril. After working
for 12 years at the Foundation for Individual

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Rights in Education, I have seen hundreds
of examples of students in peril.

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Here are just a few:
At Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis,

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a student employee was found guilty of "racial
harassment" for publicly reading a book that

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some of his fellow employees found offensive.

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The book was Notre Dame vs. the Klan and it
was available in the school's library. It

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recounted and celebrated the defeat of the
Ku Klux Klan when its members marched on Notre

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Dame in 1924. So what did the university find
offensive? The photo on the book's cover.

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At the University of Delaware, students were
forced to undergo ideological reeducation

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as part of the university's compulsory student
orientation program. The program was described

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as "treatment" for students with incorrect
attitudes and beliefs.

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Students were taught to adopt highly specific
university-approved views on politics, race,

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sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and
environmentalism. They were also required

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to attend one-on-one meetings with their resident
assistants where they were compelled to answer

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intrusive, probing, and utterly irrelevant
personal questions, such as ... "When did

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you discover your sexual identity?"

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And an increasing number of schools are trying
to drive religious students off campus. Vanderbilt

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University, for example, has enacted a policy
that forbids faith-based student groups from

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selecting members and leaders based on . . . their
faith. As a result, 14 Christian groups have

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been derecognized by the university.

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Then there are "speech codes" at a majority
of American colleges and universities.

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What is a speech code? It is a university
regulation or policy that limits or bans expression

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written or verbal that is protected under
the First Amendment. Such codes are applied

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with glaring double standards against religious,
conservative, or politically incorrect speech,

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or simply speech that a particular campus
administration happens to dislike. In other

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words, there are things that you are completely
free to say and write off campus that will

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get you into serious trouble if you say or
write them on campus.

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These codes include polices that ban speech
that administrators find "insulting," or "offensive".

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One absurd code that appeared at multiple
universities banned "inappropriately directed

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laughter." And in Orwellian fashion, some
schools even limit free speech to tiny sections

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of campus called, "free speech zones."

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Recently at the University of central Arkansas
you were subject to disciplinary action if

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you said or did something deemed annoying
to another student.

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In the most extensive study yet conducted
of campus speech codes, the Foundation for

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Individual Rights in Education found that
62 percent of America's top colleges maintain

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serious restrictions on written and verbal
expression, that violate First

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Amendment protections.

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What are the consequences of all this censorship
by colleges and universities?

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I explain that in detail in my book, Unlearning
Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of

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American Debate, but for our purposes here,
I will focus on just three.

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First, campus censorship teaches students
that they have a right not to be offended.

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The moment society says that people have the
right not to be offended, it has announced

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the end of the right to free speech.
Second, campus censorship teaches students

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poor intellectual habits. It teaches them
not to think critically lest they arrive at

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a conclusion or express a thought that might
offend someone. Further, students are taught

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to ignore the timeless principle that educated
people should actively seek out intelligent

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people with whom they disagree for debate
and discussion.

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And third, it teaches students that they have
fewer rights than they actually have; that

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they must defer to arbitrary authority. A
generation of students who don't know their

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rights, and believe they must get permission
before speaking their minds, is not thinking

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like a free people and that is a threat to
free society.

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The rights embodied in the First Amendment
shape American society. They foster America's

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religious and cultural pluralism, spur scientific
and scholarly innovation, and thus secure

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our remarkable prosperity.

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But today's universities with their censorship,
speech codes, and political correctness are

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putting the future of this unique experiment
in freedom at risk. This is the very opposite

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of what American Higher Education was founded
to do.

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I'm Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education, for Prager University.