WASHINGTON – Despite disagreement about whether there’s a free-speech crisis on American college campuses and, if so, to what degree, there are public concerns about free expression that should be addressed, according to a panel of experts assembled for a discussion Monday by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
“We do need to be attentive to the cases that exist when we end up in a situation where there really is sort of an enforced way of thinking on any set of issues and students feel oppressed, truly unable to fully express their identities,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of Hillel International and a former Democrat Congressman and chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.
Fingerhut participated in a panel discussion titled “Crisis on Campus: The Future of Free Expression and Intellectual Diversity.” It was the inaugural event of the Campus Free Expression Project, a new BPC initiative to address political polarization by supporting development of independent thinkers in the next generation who are capable of civil civic debate.
The panel, moderated by project director Dr. Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill, was planned prior to President Donald J. Trump’s issuance last week of an executive order intended to pressure colleges and universities to protect free-speech and free-expression rights of students and faculty.
Although Trump referenced instances of bias and violence against students with conservative positions, panelists noted that speech and expression on the ideological left and right have been suppressed.
Sometimes, panelists said, students self-censor out of fear of repercussions from teachers or other students who have expressed an opposing political perspective, pointing to a lack of wide intellectual diversity on some campuses.
“There is a crisis, but not the one most people are describing,” said Sanford Ungar, director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University and president emeritus of Goucher College. “It goes across the political spectrum. There are deplorable instances of serious speakers being shouted down.”
