Turning 18 years old can be a magical age. With it comes the ability to vote, to smoke, to buy porn, to enlist and go to war for your country.
But despite these freedoms and the ability to fight for other people’s freedoms, Eric Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and writer for Slate, does not believe 18-year-olds should have any rights when they step onto a college campus because they are still “children.”
Posner wrote a new op-ed, titled “Universities Are Right—and Within Their Rights—to Crack Down on Speech and Behavior,” questioning why people are upset about campus censorship.
There is a popular, romantic notion that students receive their university education through free and open debate about the issues of the day. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Students who enter college know hardly anything at all—that’s why they need an education. Classroom teachers know students won’t learn anything if they blab on about their opinions. Teachers are dictators who carefully control what students say to one another. It’s not just that sincere expressions of opinion about same-sex marriage or campaign finance reform are out of place in chemistry and math class. They are out of place even in philosophy and politics classes, where the goal is to educate students (usually about academic texts and theories), not to listen to them spout off. ”
Posner’s crackdown on freedom of speech is not just limited to classrooms. He also believes that they should not have freedom of speech anywhere on campus. He said that since they are the equivalent of children, this will help them to be less “offensive” to one another and create a more positive environment as a whole.
Second, and more important—at least for libertarians partisans of the free market—the universities are simply catering to demand in the marketplace for education. While critics sometimes give the impression that lefty professors and clueless administrators originated the speech and sex codes, the truth is that universities adopted them because that’s what most students want. If students want to learn biology and art history in an environment where they needn’t worry about being offended or raped, why shouldn’t they?”
Posner’s entire argument boils down to this one point, “Critics complain that universities are treating adults like children. The problem is that universities have been treating children like adults.”
But no matter how much Posner wants to believe that 18-year-olds are children, they are legally adults. And stepping onto a college campus does not mean that they have signed away their constitutional rights.
