Don't Fear the Protests! Free Speech on Campus Needs to Apply to Everyone

Writing for the conservative/libertarian Pacific Legal Foundation, Timothy Snowball writes against “Campus policies” that “even restrict students from simply questioning someone else’s beliefs, if the questions could be perceived as offensive by a potential listener.” Readers of this blog know that, I like most communication professors, strongly support free speech on campus. On the one hand, Snowball’s essay is one more step in what I perceive to be semi-irrational conservative paranoia. I worked on college campuses for decades, and students in my classes and most of my colleagues' classes freely expressed, agreed with, and argued about whatever opinions they wanted. On the other hand, today’s colleges and universities do fear to sponsor controversial speakers, courses, and ideas. University administrators are constantly aware of public perception, which they think directly affects their financing or reputation.

Sir Christopher Wren Building, College of William and Mary

When I was in college from 1969-1973, at the very conservative, mostly-segregated College of William and Mary in Virginia, the college routinely invited controversial speakers from every perspective. I heard presentations by such liberal firebrands as William Kuntsler and Julian Bond. While I was studying for my master’s degree at the very liberal Northern Illinois University, the university invited an American Nazi to speak in an auditorium and give his views. In the 1960s and 1970s, universities thought it was part of their mission to expose students to many opinions, perspectives, and political views. But no more.

Libertarian speaker Charles Murray can usually give his university presentations uninterrupted, but at times protestors have shouted him down. We’re seeing protests against campus speeches by conservative Candace Owens. Too often, however, conservative leaders think that free speech means that they should be free, not that liberals should also be free to say what they think. Lulabel Seitz was one of several high school students whose speeches were cut off when they strayed into controversial territory of which their conservative school administrators disapproved. Conservatives protested against Linda Sarsour’s commencement speech at the City University of New York. Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA sponsors a despicable “Professor Watchlist” that calls out professors who they think are expressing liberal opinions. For example, they criticize Chapman University’s Catherine Cruger for teaching with a feminist perspective. Turning Point USA’s devotion to free speech seems to be very one-sided indeed.

Universities today are much less likely to invite controversial speakers or sponsor controversial classes because they fear exactly the kind of criticism that Turning Point USA dishes out so freely, or the kind of protest that a Charles Murray speech often invites.

So, yes, schools need to be much more open to diverse perspectives. But for that to happen, liberal and conservative firebrands need to calm down when a controversial speaker appears. It is fine for them to question the speakers, disagree with them, or engage in protest that does not obstruct the speaker. Universities' trustees, state legislatures, and political pundits need to remember that, when a school sponsors someone who causes controversy or conflict, they are doing their jobs and are not necessarily endorsing the opinion in question. Tolerance was a fundamental value of our nation’s founders. That’s why the First Amendment exists. As they become more intolerant, schools merely reflect society’s pressures, and the very groups that protest loudly for freedom of speech often become free speech’s greatest enemies.

In his essay, Timothy Snowball quotes Edward R. Murrow: “We are not descended from fearful men—not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.” I agree, with the caveat that we are not descended from either fearful men or women. Yet, for conservatives' critiques to have force, they need to extend to others the tolerance that they expect to receive.

P.S. William and Mary today is thoroughly integrated. Good for them. 

Photo by William D. Harpine, all rights reserved