As students protest a number of right-wing and conservative speakers and professors at campuses across the country, the debate about First Amendment rights becomes complicated. This also raises the question about whether such protests further isolate conservative faculty members and prevent students from critically engaging with various viewpoints.
For one well-known conservative professor, free speech protests illuminate a lack of diverse political opinion on college campuses. This can ultimately affect students’ quality of education, says Dr. Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.
“One of the main purposes of universities is to expose people to ideas,” Swain says. “Universities are not supposed to be about indoctrination of a singular point of view, and as far as teaching students how to engage in critical analysis, that cannot take place in an environment where we try to insulate them from anything that might make them feel uncomfortable.”
Swain made national headlines over a controversial column she wrote for The Tennessean after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January 2015.
“What would it take to make us admit we were wrong about Islam?” she wrote. “What horrendous attack would finally convince us that Islam is not like other religions in the United States, that it poses an absolute danger to us and our children unless it is monitored better than it has been under the Obama administration?”
Following the publication of her column, which was deemed anti-Muslim, Vanderbilt University emailed a statement to the entire student body offering supportive services for students hurt by the ideas expressed in Swain’s local news editorial. While the university disagreed with Swain’s comments, Vanderbilt upheld her right to make them.
“We in no way condone or support the views stated in the editorial, and understand that they are deeply offensive to many members of our community — Muslim and non-Muslim alike,” Dr. Susan Wente, provost at Vanderbilt, said in a statement to students and faculty at the time. “We are fully committed to ensuring our campus is a safe and welcoming environment for all. Closely related to this commitment is our support of free speech, which is put to the test when polarizing speech such as this is shared. It is in these times more than ever when we must keep dialogue open.”
