Colleges and universities should be able to curtail hurtful and offensive political views on campus, according to students surveyed in recent poll.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released a survey Wednesday that found more than 50 percent of students believed their two- or four-year institutions should be allowed to restrict intolerant opinions, despite almost one-third saying free speech was the most important civil liberty.
The results reflect a similar trend captured by a poll the foundation conducted in October 2017 after the deadly rally and counterprotest in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017. That research found almost 70 percent of students supported a speaker being disinvited from an event if they had made racist comments in the past.
“These viewpoints are troubling from FIRE’s perspective,” the foundation said, referring to the latest poll. “They suggest only a surface-level understanding of free expression and association protections that underlie the First Amendment and an unwillingness to see them applied to the protection of expression some find offensive or objectionable.”
The foundation worked with YouGov to survey 2,225 college students at two- and four-year institutions around the country between Sept. 24, 2018, and Oct. 11, 2018, via YouGov’s online opt-in research panel. Its findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
[Opinion: Major university sued for Orwellian, unconstitutional restrictions on free speech]
