The quest for equal rights on the University of Missouri campus is juxtaposed with stifling restrictions of free speech.
This week, online threats and rumors of violence led the University of Missouri to increase campus security. The university police instructed students to report all “hateful and/or hurtful speech,” and an email sent to campus on Tuesday warned students that they would be punished for inappropriate speech.
The university’s student code of conduct broadly prohibits “unwelcome verbal or physical conduct, on the basis of actual or perceived membership in a protected class as defined in the university’s anti-discrimination policies.”
One University of Missouri student Ian Paris expressed his discontent with what called the “literal speech police” on campus by putting up a “free speech wall” on MU’s Lowry Mall for people to write their opinions.
“You can’t have just one side of the conversation,” Paris told the New York Times. “I’ve had students tell me they’re afraid to express their opinion because they are afraid they’ll be criticized.”
The College Republicans Missouri state chair Hannah Beers also voiced concern over how the protests are being handled.
“Attempting to limit [free speech] produces reaction instead of respite,” she said.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said it was “disappointed” with the reaction of the MU Police Department.
“Mistakenly addressing symptoms – instead of causes – and doing it in a way that runs counter to the First Amendment is not the wise or appropriate response,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
Some national conservative and libertarian student groups are reaching out to their chapters in Missouri to encourage free speech on campus.
A spokesperson for the Young America Foundation said that the University of Missouri’s conservative club requested one of YAF’s “free speech boxes” after the protests broke out.
“Yesterday the student activists distributed the materials from the box, including pocket constitutions, posters and t-shirts, to protect and exercise their free speech rights at a time when their ability to express conservative beliefs is at risk,” said YAF spokesperson Emily Jashinsky.
The College Republican National Committee said the situation at the University of Missouri highlights a trend across academia nationwide. There is nothing new about this trend of “insidious intolerance to diverse opinions that has been building on college campuses for the past decade,” a CRNC spokesperson said.
Students for Liberty, a libertarian student organization with chapters at universities across the country, is also concerned about free speech restrictions at Mizzou and other campuses.
“While it’s always encouraging to see young people raise their voices on campus, many of the recent protests have unfortunately called for restricting free speech and regulating students’ behavior like a parent would to a child,” said Casey Given of Students for Liberty. “Students should embrace their freedom as adults, not shun it. College is a place to develop one’s autonomy as a freethinking individual and hear new perspectives. It is only in an environment of free speech that an honest and productive conversation about race could ever be had.”
