This month, President Trump signed an executive order that protects free speech on college campuses. It will “encourage institutions to foster environments that promote open, intellectually engaging, and diverse debate, including through compliance with the First Amendment for public institutions and compliance with stated institutional policies regarding freedom of speech for private institutions.”
Trump is addressing a real problem on college campuses. The White House might even to tie federal funding to the protection of free speech. That’s great, but all too often, Trump’s support for free speech seems to depend on who is speaking.
Higher education was once a place where the free exchange of ideas could occur. But today, schools seem intent less on education and more on indoctrination. Politics has transformed American colleges and universities into cauldrons of political activism. And if you’re not a liberal-thinking student by your sophomore year, you’re not getting the right education.
College campuses have leaned left for generations, but until recently, they continued to welcome diverse viewpoints. This is no longer the case. One piece of evidence is that when conservative pundits and academics visit to speak at campus, they are booed and harassed or even physically attacked by those who would prevent them from speaking.
Hundreds of students at Middlebury College chanted and shouted at Charles Murray, the controversial scholar, to prevent him from delivering a public lecture. Instead of debating his ideas (which would have been more consistent with university ideals), they violated a scholar’s First Amendment right to speak. Some even began rocking the car carrying Murray away.
The University of California, Berkeley withdrew an invitation to Milo Yiannopoulos, a former editor at the far-right website Breitbart, after violent protests broke out, but far less controversial speakers face being shouted down or even violently attacked by activists when they visit campus. So much for disapproving of what someone says but defending to the death their right to say it. College students defend free speech only as long as they don’t deem it offensive.
Some college students are so sensitive to dissenting opinions that they need an intellectual shelter in the form of the “safe space.” Safe spaces are intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening ideas and conversations. Safe spaces are even more-insidious threat to the free exchange of ideas. Students who enter them are safe from ever having their sincerely held beliefs challenged.
Safe spaces suffocate the diversity of perspectives in classrooms and will leave some graduates unprepared for situations in the workplace where such “bubbles” are unavailable. For the leaders of tomorrow to flourish, higher education must recommit to true academic freedom. Don’t cancel invited speakers because their topics are controversial. Instead, take advantage of those teaching moments to educate students about the value of hearing multiple perspectives and not simply shutting down or hiding from views with which they disagree.
Yet Trump’s championing of this cause is truly ironic. Since his campaign, he has disparaged the American media, even canceling the White House credentials of a reporter he doesn’t like and calling journalists “enemies of the American people.” The president weaponizes Twitter and avoids press conferences as much as possible. The phrase “Fake News” is used to disparage and deflect from accurate news reporting. Free speech for his friends, not so much for the press.
Nevertheless, the president’s firm support for campus free speech is both necessary and welcome. Nothing less than the future of our country is at stake.
America needs college grads who are equipped with the intellectual dexterity and versatility to face the challenges of the 21st century. Those who have been kept in a bubble won’t have those traits. Colleges and universities are doing a disservice to students if they fail to foster free speech or coddle students in safe spaces. The Trump administration’s latest declaration has the correct words, but the president must look at the man in the mirror and realize how vital the American press is in preserving our freedom.
Donavan Wilson is a writer based in Washington, D.C.
