Discovery Journal Free Speech on College and University Campuses

Question:-

what think you of free speech on college and university campuses? How important is this concept to you? Are you aware of the long history, until quite recently, of first amendment rights once being highly valued in higher education?

Answer:-

As a college student, I believe that free speech is important in the university and college campuses to voice unpopular opinions or the opinion of marginal communities. College or university students are young citizens who have the power to shape society in the future. As a young citizen, I believe that the social problem such as inequalities or any kind of oppression can be mitigated with the help of discussion among all the internal parties. Open discussion on the social issues provides as the opportunity to know opinions, interest and values of each other. Therefore through open discussion, the involved parties can you reach a Win-Win solution. University or colleges at the best places to start such open discussion on social problems as the students who represent different communities of the society gather on the campuses. From this perspective, promoting free speech on campuses is an important step to solve social issues.

Although free speech is highly important for social development, college and Universities often show their reluctance to allow the students to practice it. The value of free speech is also reflected in the video of Prof. Alan Charles Kors. He shared his support towards free speech in the context of “Piss Christ” incident. He also indicated how the Marxist professor encouraged him to share his views in examination during his sophomore years (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). The experience of Prof. Alan shows how university teachers used to promote free speech is contrary to the current trend of infantilisation. The conversation with sociologist Frank Freudi also indicates that infantilisation of college students is one of the new attacks on free speech (ReasonTV). As indicated by Frank, a large portion of college students do not consider that freedom is important because of the infantilisation. The sociologist also indicated that initially the process of infantilisation was started in a small section of the society. Over the years, the largest section of the society also started demonstrating it. He used the example of the Holocaust in this case. Holocaust is one of the important events in history which was related to violation of human rights to an extreme level. However, the modern college or university students do not discuss it adequately as the institution authorities do not support such discussion. The sociologist also mentioned that free speech was highly valued in the college and university campuses in the past, but the value reduced because of the recent trends of infantilisation (ReasonTV).

While talking about freedom of speech, I believe that controversial or hate speeches should not be censored. As indicated by, Greg Lukianoff, the censorship on the speech will encourage the youngsters to communicate with people who agree with them only (ReasonTV). It, in turn, promotes group thinking which is an obstacle for a free society. I agree with Greg that the key purpose of free speech is revealing the issues of society. The college or university students should bring up the harsh truth instead of sugar-coating those. The instance of water buffalo incident can be considered in this case. The term water buffalo was used in the context of racial harassment and it resulted in the establishment of FIRE. So, it indicates that the uncensored speech is a powerful tool. However, I also believe that the purpose of free speech should be remembered while revealing ugly truth or hate speeches. As indicated by Harvey Silverglate, censorship harms everyone in the society including the authorities who are using the censorship (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). Discussing the truth or using uncensored terms is important to find a solution for the problems. So, the uncensored speech is necessary to get a deep insight into the social issues and it should not be used for hurting the sentiments of fellow students or any other communities. As indicated by the students of Occidental College, the hate speech and hate crime are different (ReasonTV). When someone tries to insult others using uncensored words, it becomes hate crime and does not add any value to society. Therefore, although having the right to free speech is necessary, I believe the students too, should remember their responsibilities while using this powerful tool.