Emily Whitten: Free speech on campus

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, August 10th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s a familiar phrase: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.” That’s the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Here’s WORLD’s Emily Whitten with a reflection on what that means for Christian college students these days.

EMILY WHITTEN, COMMENTATOR: Free speech has been under fire on campus for decades. But this summer, it got personal for our family. My husband, two teen daughters, and I all woke up at zero dark thirty to visit Tennessee’s largest public university, Middle Tennessee State. While my oldest took the ACT, the rest of us tooled around, testing out the student experience.

For the first time, I tried to envision my own children running labs in the new science building. Or working at the coffee shop with the trans barista. Or studying in the library, one of 16 designated “safe zones” for LGBT+ individuals.

One bit of good news for parents like me–this fall, as nearly 20 million college students head to class, many do so with more speech protection than in previous years. Repressive speech codes and tiny free speech zones used to be popular on campus, but many schools now have rules more in line with the First Amendment. And those that still restrict speech often back down when confronted.

Take Daniel Brezina, law student at American University, Washington College of Law. This summer, the university investigated him and seven other students for discussing abortion in a college group chat. Here’s Brezina in a Youtube video.

BREZINA: What we said was simply strong disagreement on the issues.

With the help of lawyers and advocates at FIRE–or Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression–the university dropped its investigation.

Still, the fight goes on. That’s partially because campus censorship now often comes from students–not faculty. In the 2017 book, The Coddling of the American Mind, president of FIRE Greg Lukianoff explained this phenomenon. Here’s Lukianoff this July on Bari Weiss’s podcast, Honestly.

CLIP: Prior to about 2014, students on campus for my entire career were good on free speech…[cut words]...That changed like lightning struck in 2014. Suddenly students were demanding new speech codes, they were demanding disinvitations, they were demanding new censorship, but using medicalized language to justify it… [fade out]

Since then, many of these problems have moved online. Universities and students continue to expand online learning and social networks. That gives companies like Twitter and ZOOM more control over speech standards for students and faculty.

Danish lawyer and activist Jacob Mchangama’s new book titled Free Speech: From Socrates to Social Media highlights the dangers here. It’s true, private companies aren’t bound by the First Amendment; they are free to set and enforce their own terms of service. But Mchangama says in fact, government officials in Washington, London, and around the world exert huge influence over these platforms. They use congressional hearings and other carrots—and sticks—to get what they want. That’s especially concerning since “No government in history has ever been able to exert such extensive control over what is being said, read, and shared… across the world.”

Which brings me back to the ACT. It’s possible my daughters might get miracle scores, enabling them to attend private colleges. But more likely, they’ll end up as worldview minorities at some state college. For this reason and more, I’m grateful for the recent gains in free speech on campus…and I hope that trend continues. It won’t make college easy for my girls, but it can give some protection when they speak God’s truth in love.

I’m Emily Whitten.

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