Like many conservative college students, when President Trump announced during his Saturday speech at CPAC that he was going to sign an executive order mandating the protection of freedom of speech on college campuses, I was excited.
As a student journalist, I have covered the many egregious infringements on the free speech rights of college students all over the country. Here, the occupant of the highest office in the land says he is going to do something about it and sign an executive order mandating that any college or university receiving federal funding would be required to protect free speech.
But unlike most of my fellow conservative college students, I go to a university that actively restrains the speech of students in order to protect a higher principle. I chose to come here because I believe in that higher principle, and I believe there is no place at my devout Catholic university for speech that contradicts the religious mission of my school.
Franciscan University of Steubenville is just one of dozens of colleges and universities nationwide who accept federal funds but whose mission statement does not allow for a blanket exercise of free speech.
The president’s proposal, while well-intentioned, may have an unintended consequence of putting religious institutions like Franciscan in the difficult situation of being forced to allow the promotion of ideas that run contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church, which would violate the institution’s right to free exercise.
Every student that goes to a religious school makes a conscious decision to take upon themselves the institution’s mission statement. That is the decision I made when I committed to attend Franciscan University.
We need this executive order. Students across the country are suffering for their right to support the policies that made this country what it is. But a blanket executive order over all universities would be a mistake.
It is imperative that institutions such as Franciscan, Catholic University of America, and the dozens of other Catholic and Evangelical colleges and universities that accept federal funds be allowed to opt out of these protections for religious reasons.
If religious protections are not applied to these institutions, it could be used by organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL to justify establishing chapters, inviting speakers, and promoting ideas at schools whose stated academic mission is directly contrary to the goal of those organizations.
Catholic institutions have already had many a legal fight with the federal government over the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare. Let’s not accidentally create yet another problem that can be easily avoided.
Jeremiah Poff (@JJ_Poff) is a senior journalism major at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is a graduate of the Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program.
