College Students and Free Speech

There have been several posts on this blog about the Georgetown Dialogues Initiative. This effort seeks to convey a set of skills to our students to engage in conversations with those in disagreement with them.

A recent report from the Knight Foundation details findings from a survey of US college students conducted in March 2024, days before the activism on college campuses regarding the conflict in the Middle East.

The majority of student respondents support new programs to teach them how to have constructive dialogues (when such programs did not yet exist on their campus). To the extent that the feelings of the survey respondents might coincide with those of Georgetown students, the report emboldens our efforts in the Georgetown Dialogues Initiative.

But there is much more in the survey. Because the survey measured a much larger set of opinions of the students, it can offer richer context to the students’ expressed desire for more experience in civil discussions across differences.

One value of the report is that it compares 2024 findings to the results of a similar survey in 2022. This is useful because knowing the percentage of students who favor or oppose something at one point in time offers less information than knowing that the percentage is increasing or decreasing over time.

First, very high percentages of students express support freedom of speech. Of a large set of rights rated in the survey (e.g., privacy, equal protection, freedom of assembly, press, religion), freedom of speech had one of the highest percentages of students reporting it as very or extremely important (91%). Further, there are increasing percentages of students over time who disagree with the statement that the “first amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.” So, there is strong and increasing support for the concept of freedom of speech.

However, decreasing percentages of students feel that free speech rights are secure over time (e.g., much lower percentages that the freedom of speech is secure). In short, they question whether their environments protect freedom of speech.

Then, some survey questions get closer to personal experiences. Here, we see that higher percentages of students feel uncomfortable about something said about their own “race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.” In short, they don’t like speech that portrays them negatively.

Further, despite reporting that they support freedom of speech, increasing percentages of students say that colleges should “protect students by prohibiting speech they may find offensive or biased.” For example, in the different years of surveys, restricting offensive racial slurs was supported much more than, for example, limiting the display of support for a presidential candidate. But the biggest change over time is the higher percentage of students supporting restricting “expressing political view that are upsetting or offensive to certain groups.” There is growing support for restricting political speech.

In short, careful examination of the survey results exposes the complexity of the terrain that universities are traversing in these times. Students express strong support for freedom of speech. But increasing numbers report being uncomfortable expressing their own viewpoints. Then we see increasing numbers support restrictions speech that is offensive to others. Yet they want to increase their skills in dialogue across differences.

It’s not a simple environment in which to work on nurturing students to listen carefully to opposing viewpoints, empathize with alternative perspectives, discern the motivation of those with whom you disagree, and partner in building bridges across differences.