Students View Speech Rights on Campus as Important, Yet Increasingly Less Secure
Polling finds that students see speech rights as important, yet increasingly less secure, particularly for Republicans and Independents.
On the back of both victories and defeats for free-speech on college campuses, a new “Knight-Ipsos College Student Views on Free Expression and Campus Speech” report sheds a light on the how current students understand campus speech and the first amendment.
The report found that only 47% of students thought that the freedom of speech was secure in the country today, a dramatic decrease from the 73% in 2016 when the question was first asked. This sentiment was particularly present among Republican students, with only 27% believing it to be secure, a decrease from 52% in 2016. This contrasts with 46% of Independents (a decrease of 13%) and 61% (a decrease of 2%) of Democrats, with only Democratic students remaining relatively stable in their belief.
In tandem to this Republican feeling, only 51% of Black students felt that the first amendment protected them, the lowest of any racial group and a sharp decrease of 9% compared to when this question was asked in 2019.
Nearly two-thirds of students (65%), felt that their campus’s climate stifled free expression an 11% increase from 2016. However, 51% have either felt uncomfortable or unsafe at school due to speech that referenced their race, ethnicity, faith, gender, or sexual orientation. Finally, whilst one in five students (22%) wish to be able to prohibit some speech, 59% believe that colleges should prioritize free speech on campus.