Is there really a freedom of speech problem in US universities?
Inside Higher Ed has a report on a new publication on free speech on US campuses.
Nearly 59 percent of campuses have policies that “clearly and substantially” restrict students’ protected speech, according to an annual report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and another 36 percent have policies that “overregulate” speech on campus. Private colleges, which are not legally bound by the First Amendment, fare slightly worse in the report; about 62 percent of those campuses substantially restrict student speech, compared to 58 percent of public campuses. However, the percentage of campuses seriously restricting speech is down 17 percent from six years ago, the report says.
Obviously the legislative framework governing free speech in US universities is very different from the UK but this does seem to be an extremely pessimistic picture. You do suspect there is something of a political agenda here though. Indeed anything at all which limits total freedom of speech is characterised as a problem.
