Earlier this month, Marsha Blackburn introduced the Campus Free Speech Resolution of 2019, a measure co-sponsored by a handful of other GOP senators. Blackburn says the resolution is meant to protect “the free and open exchange of ideas,” and it goes on to single out free speech zones and speech codes, which it concludes are “inherently at odds with the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”
The Republican Tennessee senator and her colleagues deserve applause for recognizing that free speech is under attack on college campuses, but this measure cannot make any kind of meaningful impact without the force of law behind it. This is the most frustrating aspect of Blackburn’s resolution: If it is not backed up with any kind of enforcement mechanism, what ensures that any college or university will comply?
As president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an intellectual organization that aims to teach college students about America’s founding principles, not one day goes by that I do not hear about one of our students being censored for the values they hold.
For years, ISI students have been subjected to daily harassment and abuse on campuses for their beliefs. In just the past academic year, our student journalists were barred from reporting on a faculty meeting, kicked off of campus for wanting to host a debate on the value of a liberal arts education (at a liberal arts university, mind you), and one of our students even received death threats for telling fellow students to “grow up.”
In light of such serious threats to free speech, is this legislation really the best the GOP Senate majority can do? Surely not, and I call on Blackburn and her Republican colleagues to include protections for campus free speech in the next re-authorization of the Higher Education Act.
Adding free speech protections to the HEA could allow the federal government to cut off funding in the form of student loans and grants to colleges and universities that suppress free speech through free speech zones and speech codes. Many schools depend on these funds, and threatening to cut support would force administrations to actually uphold the Constitution.
While President Trump’s recent executive order addressed the issue of campus free speech, it only relates to the funding of research grants. Research funds represent a colossal amount of funding for schools, but it’s nowhere near the amount of dollars dispersed each year in federal student loans and grants.
And there’s another, more personal, reason Blackburn should call for free speech protections in the reauthorized HEA. Her counterpart from Tennessee, Sen. Lamar Alexander, is chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Alexander has announced his retirement from the Senate following the 2020 election. What better way to cap an already distinguished career than by protecting something as precious as free speech, one of the basic building blocks of Western civilization?
Still, there’s no guarantee that binding federal funding to campus free speech will work in the end. And as a conservative and former state legislator, I tend to tremble at the thought of the federal government getting more involved in education. So I would rather see an independent organization evaluate university free speech compliance than a potentially partisan government agency.
But nonetheless, the time for action is now. Blackburn’s resolution is one small step in the right direction, but in reality, it is not going to change much. Every college student, and our country for that matter, deserves more.
Charlie Copeland is president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. From 2002 through 2008 he served as a Delaware State Senator, rising to the position of Senate Minority Leader. His work has appeared in Forbes, the Washington Free Beacon, and The Daily Caller. Follow him on Twitter @charliecopeland.
