Biweekly Discussion - Is/Was There a Campus Free Speech Crisis?


Details
This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.
Here's the link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89777827352?pwd=T2poNGxMMGw3Ymg0dnZGUStsQW9qUT09
Meeting ID: 897 7782 7352
Passcode: 705233
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THE CAMPUS FREE SPEECH CRISIS, REVISITED
HOW DO WE DISTINGUISH A REAL CRISIS FROM A MORAL PANIC?
INTRODUCTION:
As many of our members are probably aware, there was an open letter published on the Harper's Magazine website on July 7, 2020 with 153 signatories — which included 17 political scientists, 7 sociologists, 6 law professors, as well as many other scholars, writers, journalists & activists — which decried the spread of "cancel culture" in the news media, academia, and broader society. In the ensuing debates over "cancel culture," several scholars and journalists — notably the former Evergreen State biology professor Brett Weinstein, psychologist Jonathan Haidt, Vox writer Matt Yglesias, and Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi — argued that this trend originated on college campuses and that we need to take a closer look at what has been happening there over the last decade.
This meetup will address the debates over free speech on American college campuses, and examine its various facets such as the "de-platforming" of guest speakers, the enforcement of "speech codes" that can leads to students being disciplined or expelled, the "chilling effect" on students expressing their views in classrooms, and the firing of professors for objectionable speech that may violate the principle of "academic freedom".
As some of you may remember, these issues received heavy news media coverage starting in 2015 with the controversy over an email about Halloween costumes at Yale that led to professor Nicholas Christakis being pressured to step down as the head of a residential college. That same year, there were with rowdy protests at Mizzou that led to student journalists being threatened with violence, as well as protests that explicitly opposed free speech at Amherst College.
In 2016, campus speaker disinvitations hit a historic high. Over a quarter of them centered around Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who rose to prominence with the angry protests his "Dangerous F*ggot Tour" provoked at a series of colleges. The most memorable was an event called "The Triggering" at UMass Amherst where Milo appeared on stage with conservative commentator Steven Crowder and equity feminist Christina Hoff Sommers, and a viral video of their talks showed them being constantly interrupted by chants from eccentric left-wing activists (including the infamous "Trigglypuff").
Then in 2017, at Evergreen State, biology professors Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying were threatened by students & pushed to resign after opposing a no-whites-allowed "Day of Absence" on their campus, and the college president was held against his will in a room by student activists & subjected to what looked like a Maoist "struggle session" caught on video. There were also protests that devolved into riots at Middlebury College when Charles Murrray spoke and a series of riots at UC Berkeley when Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Ben Shapiro came to speak on separate occasions. Berkeley had to bring in a large number of police officers for a conservative panel event in September, costing the university an estimated $800,000.
In 2018, Milo fell out of favor with conservative groups in February, and the year saw a big decline in campus protests of guest speakers. While a small number of protests early in the year turned violent (at CSU, UW & Michigan State), none came close to matching the chaos seen at Berkeley in 2017, and media attention on the issue declined. Christina Hoff Sommers got interrupted by protesters at Lewis & Clark Law School, but Ann Coulter & Dinesh D’Souza were able to speak in 2018 without incident. Nicholas Christakis was awarded Yale’s highest faculty honor, the Sterling Professorship — although it was purely on academic grounds, it showed he'd retained the university's support despite the email controversy 3 years prior.
Just as things were beginning to look better, there were a series of debate among several scholars & journalists in the summer of 2018 about whether or not the high-profile incidents since 2015 were indicative of a real "free speech crisis" or merely a "moral panic" stirred up by conservative pundits & politicians to castigate left-wing student activists & liberal professors. We'll take an empirical, quantitative approach to this issue and do our best to determine what was going on, and what events in 2019 and the spring of 2020 suggest about the future of free speech on campus.
RELEVANT MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:
This will be our second meetup that analyzes free speech issues from a scientific perspective. Back in August of 2017, we looked at research on how exposure to new information can change people's minds to see if the "marketplace of ideas" concept can be empirically verified, both in terms of getting people to adopt new scientific theories & getting people to develop more empathy for their out-groups. We discussed how some polls suggest that tolerance for gays & lesbians and support for same-sex marriage appears to have gained support more rapidly among Millennials than attitudes towards racial minorities and support for policies like affirmative action, which appear to have stagnated in recent decades. We also looked at the debate over whether minor social slights related to race, gender or sexuality cause lasting psychological harm comparable to school bullying or workplace harassment, or conversely whether "microaggression" training actually primes people to experience minor social slights as traumatic. We finished by looking at research on why people hold stereotypes and engage in hate speech, as well as psychological factors that play a role in determining our overall views on hate speech & free speech. If you want to review that material, click on the following link:
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/240812126/
The Philadelphia Political Agnostics meetup covered the rise of left-wing student activists known as "Social Justice Warriors" (SJWs) in a discussion back in May of 2016. The material covered student activism from a psychological & sociological angle, delving into why there's been a recent uptick in student protests on college campuses and why once obscure concepts like privilege theory, safe spaces, and trigger warnings have suddenly attained national prominence. The economist Steve Horwitz theorized that a shift towards "helicopter parenting" in the 1980-90s that left Millennials prone to resolving interpersonal conflict by appealing to authority figures. The psychologist Nick Haslam and sociologists Bradley Campbell & Jason Manning argued the shift in young people's attitudes has been matched by an institutional shift within academia towards a "victimhood culture" where even minor social slights — a.k.a. "microaggressions" — are increasingly seen as serious infractions that must be dealt with by administrators in a draconian manner. The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argued that left-wing social theories that have become prominent in academia inculcate this "victimhood culture" in students in a way that's essentially the inverse of cognitive behavioral therapy and encourages a host of cognitive distortions (e.g. catastrophizing, labeling, dichotomous thinking, excessive blaming, emotional reasoning).
However, our discussion also looked at evidence that suggests that this "victimhood culture" doesn't pervade the bulk of the student body and coverage of it may be overblown. Polls of college students indicate that Millennials tend to be more politically progressive than earlier generations, and today's college students are even more progressive than non-students. However, the majority of college students do not appear to favor the more radical positions of the SJWs and hesitate to identify with more radical movements on campus. In several articles, the science journalist Jesse Singal argued: (1) the 40% of Millennials who favor censorship of certain types of offensive speech isn't atypical and doesn't indicate a recent upsurge in support for censorship, (2) anecdotal evidence of students becoming psychologically fragile "snowflakes" is contradicted by the fact that there's no evidence of a rise in mental illness or suicide among today's college students, and (3) a survey on "trigger warnings" in college classes show that their use is actually uncommon and that most class discussions go on without activist disruptions. You can find this material at the following link:
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/pgdfslyvhblc/
We had a meetup back in June of 2018 entitled "Free Speech and Hate Speech on Campus" and the first 3 sections of that discussion outline are identical to the one we're using today. However, sections 4 & 5 addressed concerns about hate speech & hate crimes on college campuses, particularly allegations they've increased in the wake of Trump's election, and we tried to assess whether this is a real crisis or merely a moral panic stirred up by left-wing activists & liberal professors to castigate conservatives and push for more funding for diversity programs. We also looked at the stated goals of the student protests before Trump's election and their alleged backfire effects, both in terms of decreasing student enrollment in their wake (a.k.a. the "Mizzou effect") and possibly causing a "PC backlash" that contributed to Trump's 2016 election win.
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/250590144/
The 4th part of today's discussion was taken from a meetup the Philly Political Agnostics held back in June of 2018 entitled "Do Colleges Need Academic Freedom & Political Diversity?" In addition to discussion the decline of tenure & the implications for academic freedom, they looked at why college professors have become more left-leaning since the 1990s, leading to a lack of intellectual diversity in the humanities & social sciences. This, along with the recent deplatforming of conservative speakers, has led many conservative to believe that the university's purpose has shifted to liberal indoctrination. However, the "indoctrination" hypothesis is disputed among political scientists because while there's some evidence that peer & faculty environments influence students' views, it's also harder for college to change students' pre-existing political alignment than most laypeople think.
https://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-Political-Agnostics/events/xvbrznyxkbdc/
The partisan split in the assessment of what's really happening on college campuses is reminiscent of an earlier discussion we had in February of 2020 entitled "Is/Was There A Campus Rape Crisis?" We discussed how there was a notable spike in news coverage of what came to be known as the "campus rape crisis" between 2014 & 2016, but it wasn't entirely clear whether that was due to a real increase in sexual assaults or a moral panic driven by campus activism.
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/fllzgrybcdbdb/
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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:
The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over free speech on college campuses. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles & watch all the videos prior to attending our discussion.
The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section — the videos come to about 43 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry — we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.
In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.
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I. THE DIFFICULTY OF DETERMINING WHAT COLLEGE STUDENTS THINK ABOUT FREE SPEECH & HATE SPEECH:
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HOW DO THE VIEWS OF TODAY'S COLLEGE STUDENTS COMPARE TO PREVIOUS GENERATIONS? IS IT TRUE THAT ABOUT 40% OF AMERICANS HAVE ALWAYS FAVORED SOME RESTRICTIONS ON FREE SPEECH, AS JESSE SINGAL ARGUES?
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HAS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC BEEN DUPED INTO THINKING ALL COLLEGE STUDENTS, OR ALL MILLENNIALS, ARE "SNOWFLAKES" DUE TO NEWS STORIES CONCENTRATING ON THE LUNATIC FRINGE?
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ARE POLLS OF MILLENNIALS A DECENT PROXY FOR WHAT CURRENT COLLEGE STUDENTS THINK, EVEN THOUGH THE DATA INCLUDES A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO GRADUATED SEVERAL YEARS AGO OR NEVER EVEN ATTENDED COLLEGE?
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DO POLLS SHOW A RECENT POST-2012 SHIFT IN COLLEGE STUDENTS' OPINIONS ABOUT FREE SPEECH VS HATE SPEECH? DOES THIS INDICATE THAT THE GENERATION AFTER MILLENNIALS — A.K.A. "GEN-Z" OR "iGEN" - ARE DIFFERENT?
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HOW DOES SUPPORT FOR FREE SPEECH VARY DEPENDING ON WHO THE SPEAKER IS? IF STUDENTS ONLY ENDORSE FREE SPEECH FOR VIEWS THEY LIKE & CATEGORIZE THE REST AS "HATE SPEECH", SHOULD WE STILL COUNT THEM AMONG THOSE WHO "SUPPORT FREE SPEECH"?
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DOES THE HIGH LEVEL OF POLITICAL POLARIZATION AMONG CURRENT COLLEGE STUDENTS MEAN THAT GENERAL STATEMENTS ABOUT WHETHER THEY ARE MORE OR LESS OPEN TO CONTROVERSIAL SPEECH ARE MISLEADING?
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IS IT MISLEADING TO LOOK AT BROAD TRENDS IN STUDENT OPINIONS ON FREE SPEECH & HATE SPEECH TO ASSESS WHETHER THERE'S A "CRISIS", SINCE IT ONLY TAKES A SMALL NUMBER OF STUDENTS TO DISRUPT SPEAKERS & SHUT DOWN EVENTS?
1a) Newsy, "2015 Poll: If Hate Speech Is Free Speech, Millennials Don’t Want It" (video - 1:23 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCAik_tndQI
1b) Christina Hoff Sommers, "Free Speech on Campus: Is It In Danger?" (video - 5:36 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHm585Izto4
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Jesse Singal, "The Myth of the Ever-More-Fragile College Student"
https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/myth-of-the-fragile-college-student.html -
Jeffrey Adam Sachs, "There Is No Campus Free Speech Crisis: A Close Look at the Evidence" (see 1st section of the article on polls)
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/there-is-no-campus-free-speech-crisis-a-close-look-at-the-evidence/ -
Sean Stevens, "The Skeptics are Wrong Part 1: Attitudes About Free Speech On Campus are Changing"
https://heterodoxacademy.org/skeptics-are-wrong-about-campus-speech/ -
Sean Stevens, "The Skeptics are Wrong Part 3: Political Intolerance Levels on Campus are High, and Here is Why"
https://heterodoxacademy.org/the-skeptics-are-wrong-part-3-intolerance-levels-are-high/ -
Haley Glatter, "The Most Polarized Freshman Class in Half a Century: Survey results show first-year college students are more politically divided than ever before."
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/05/the-most-polarized-freshman-class-in-half-a-century/525135/
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II. SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS, DE-PLATFORMING & RIOTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES:
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IS FIRE'S DISINVITATION DATABASE WHICH SHOWS A RECENT (SINCE 2015) UPWARD TREND IN CAMPUS SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS & DE-PLATFORMING VIA THE "HECKLER'S VETO" PROOF THERE'S A "FREE SPEECH CRISIS"? IF SO, DID IT END IN 2018?
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WHEN ACTIVISTS SHOUT DOWN & "DEPLATFORM" A SPEAKER, IS THAT AN ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH OR MERELY EXERCISING THEIR FREE SPEECH? SINCE ACTIVISTS AREN'T AGENTS OF THE GOV'T, IS IT LEGALLY INCORRECT TO CALL DEPLATFORMING AN INFRINGEMENT OF THE 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH?
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SHOULD CAMPUS SPEAKER PROTESTS THAT DEVOLVE INTO RIOTS BE CONSIDERED A MORE SERIOUS VIOLATION OF FREE SPEECH NORMS THAN PEACEFUL DISINVITATIONS?
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IF COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS MAKE NO EFFORT TO APPREHEND & PUNISH PEOPLE WHO DEPLATFORM SPEAKERS, DOES THIS VIOLATE FREE SPEECH?
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IF COLLEGES DON'T PROVIDE SECURITY OR REQUIRE CONTROVERSIAL SPEAKERS TO PAY LARGE SUMS FOR SECURITY IN ORDER TO SPEAK, DOES THAT INFRINGE ON FREE SPEECH?
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ARE SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS A POOR METRIC FOR THE LEVEL OF FREE SPEECH ON A CAMPUS, SINCE A COLLEGE WHERE CONTROVERSIAL SPEAKERS ARE NEVER INVITED WILL HAVE NO DISINVITATIONS?
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SHOULD DISINVITATIONS OF COMMENCEMENT SPEAKERS COUNT AS ATTACKS ON "FREE SPEECH", SINCE GRADUATING STUDENTS DIDN'T OPT TO LISTEN TO THEM IN THE SAME WAY AS SPEAKERS INVITED FOR SPECIAL EVENTS HOSTED BY CAMPUS CLUBS?
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IS THE RECENT TENDENCY OF SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS TO COME MORE FROM THE LEFT MERELY DUE TO THE ACTIONS OF A FEW PROVOCATEURS LIKE MILO YIANNOPOULUS?
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SINCE ABOUT HALF OF CURRENT STUDENTS ATTEND COMMUNITY COLLEGES & THERE'S EVEN MORE STUDENTS AT COMMUTER SCHOOLS, ALL OF WHICH SELDOM OR EVER HAVE SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS OR BIG PROTESTS, IS THAT A POSITIVE SIGN OR ARE THEY MARGINAL WHEN IT COMES TO THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN DEMOCRACY'S "PUBLIC SPHERE"?
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ARE SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS & DE-PLATFORMING MORE COMMON AT CERTAIN COLLEGES KNOWN AS HOTBEDS OF ACTIVISM, ESP. IN NEW ENGLAND & THE WEST COAST?
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IS IT UNFAIR THAT FIRE DOESN'T CRITICIZE PRIVATE CHRISTIAN COLLEGES FOR THEIR LACK OF FREE SPEECH, OR JUSTIFIED SINCE THEY DON'T RECEIVE PUBLIC FUNDING & DON'T CLAIM TO OFFER AN ENVIRONMENT FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?
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WHY DO YOU THINK SPEAKER DISINVITATIONS DECLINED IN 2018? DOES IS APPEAR TO BE DUE MORE TO SELF-CENSORSHIP, LEGISLATIVE & POLICY CHANGES, COUNTER-TACTICS (E.G. EVENT TICKETING), OR A NEW CULTURE ON CAMPUS... OR PERHAPS JUST A MID-TERM LULL?
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WHAT SHOULD WE MAKE OF THE FACT THAT SPEAKER DISINVITATION ATTEMPTS REBOUNDED IN 2019 BACK TO 2016 LEVELS BUT WERE LESS SUCCESSFUL? IS THE FACT THEY WERE INITIATED ALMOST AS MUCH BY THE RIGHT AS BY THE LEFT SIGNIFICANT?
2a) WSJ, "Free Speech: Colleges in the Crossfire " (video - 10:45 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMNRt5tA1zE
2b) Nico Perrino w/ Jason Riley, "Jason Riley on his Dis-Invitation from Virginia Tech" (video - 12:00 min, start at 4:50 - listen til 9:35)
https://youtu.be/C1r9S3Ja07o?t=290
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Sean Stevens & Jonathan Haidt, "The Skeptics Are Wrong Part 2: Speech Culture on Campus is Changing"
https://heterodoxacademy.org/the-skeptics-are-wrong-part-2/ -
Jeffrey Adam Sachs, "There Is No Campus Free Speech Crisis: A Close Look at the Evidence"
https://niskanencenter.org/blog/there-is-no-campus-free-speech-crisis-a-close-look-at-the-evidence/ -
Nathaniel Givens, "Campus Free Speech Crisis a Myth?"
http://difficultrun.nathanielgivens.com/2018/03/16/campus-free-speech-crisis-a-myth/ -
Ari Cohn, "Is FIRE’s Disinvitation Database ‘shallow’? Hardly."
https://www.thefire.org/is-fires-disinvitation-database-shallow-hardly/ -
Jeffrey Adam Sachs, "The 'Campus Free Speech Crisis' Ended Last Year [i.e. in 2018]"
https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-campus-free-speech-crisis-ended-last-year/ -
Jonathan Marks, "A New Cause for Fear for Free Speech on Campus" [in 2019]
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/jonathan-marks/a-new-cause-for-fear-for-free-speech-on-campus/
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III. THE BROADER "FREE SPEECH CRISIS" ON CAMPUS: SPEECH CODES, NEWSPAPER CENSORSHIP, SELECTIVE BANNING OF STUDENT GROUPS, AND THE CHILLING EFFECT IN CLASSROOMS:
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IS FIRE'S RED/YELLOW/GREEN LIGHT RATINGS OF CAMPUS SPEECH CODES BASED ON WHETHER THEY PROHIBIT CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED SPEECH FAIRLY OBJECTIVE?
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WHILE 63.9% OF COLLEGES GET A "YELLOW LIGHT" RATING FROM FIRE, IS THE STEADY DECLINE IN COLLEGES THAT RECEIVE FIRE'S "RED LIGHT" RATING (DOWN FROM 42% IN 2009 TO 24.2% TODAY) EVIDENCE THAT THERE'S NO LONGER A "CRISIS"?
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WITHOUT A NATIONAL DATABASE, IS THERE ANY WAY TO GET AN ACCURATE COUNT OF COLLEGE DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS FOR STUDENTS' EXERCISING THEIR 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHTS ON CAMPUS?
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SINCE THE 2018 STUDENT PRESS LAW CENTER POLL OF COLLEGE NEWSPAPER EDITORS INDICATED 60% EXPERIENCED AT LEAST ONE INCIDENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE CENSORSHIP IN THE LAST YEAR, WHICH WOULD REPRESENT AT LEAST 320 INSTANCES, IS THAT EVIDENCE OF A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM?
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IF COLLEGES DON'T ALLOW STUDENT GROUPS THAT ARE SINGLE-SEX OR LIMITED TO MEMBERS OF A CERTAIN ETHNICITY OR RELIGION, SHOULD THAT BE CONSIDERED A 1ST AMENDMENT VIOLATION (I.E. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION) OR A VALID USE OF THEIR ANTI-DISCRIMINATION POLICY?
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IF A PROFESSOR GRADES STUDENTS POORLY FOR DISAGREEING WITH HIM/HER IN CLASS, IS THIS A FREE SPEECH INFRINGEMENT OR AN EXERCISE IN ACADEMIC FREEDOM? IS THERE EVIDENCE THAT CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS TEND TO SUFFER BAD GRADES IF/WHEN PROFESSORS DISCOVER THEIR POLITICAL BELIEFS?
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CAN WE QUANTIFY THE "CHILLING EFFECT" DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS & PEER PRESSURE MIGHT HAVE ON FREE SPEECH BY POLLING STUDENTS ON WHETHER THEY'RE RELUCTANT TO SPEAK OUT ON CERTAIN ISSUES, OR IS THAT TOO SUBJECTIVE?
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IS "CALL-OUT CULTURE" MOSTLY LIMITED TO ELITE SCHOOLS RATHER THAN ALL 4,700 COLLEGES IN THE U.S., AS JONATHAN HAIDT RECENTLY CONCEDED IN RESPONSE TO JEFF SACHS' CRITICISMS? IS THERE A BROADER "MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS" AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS THAT'S BEEN EXACERBATED BY TRIGGER WARNINGS & SAFE SPACES?
3a) Greg Lukianoff, "The Least Free Place in America" (video - 5:48 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJaM8IOev7E
3b) NBC News w/ Jonathan Haidt, "Is Free Speech On College Campuses At Risk?" (video - 8:38 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_eWqPKqCiw
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FIRE, "Spotlight on Speech Codes, 2020"
https://www.thefire.org/resources/spotlight/reports/spotlight-on-speech-codes-2020/ -
Samantha Harris, "Free-Speech Zones: Then and Now"
https://www.thefire.org/free-speech-zones-then-and-now/ -
Lindsie Trego, "Legal Analysis: Getting the numbers on college [newspaper] censorship"
http://www.splc.org/article/2018/04/legal-analysis-college-censorship -
Jeffrey M. Jones, "More U.S. College Students Say Campus Climate Deters Speech"
https://news.gallup.com/poll/229085/college-students-say-campus-climate-deters-speech.aspx -
Conor Friedersdorf, "Evidence that Conservative Students Really Do Self-Censor"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/evidence-conservative-students-really-do-self-censor/606559/ -
David M. Perry, "No, Professors aren't discriminating against conservative students"
https://psmag.com/ideas/no-professors-arent-discriminating-against-conservative-students
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IV. THE DECLINE OF TENURE AND TROUBLING TRENDS IN HIRING PRACTICES, ACADEMIC FREEDOM CASES & FACULTY FIRINGS:
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WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HIRING BIASES IN ACADEMIA? HOW MANY PROFESSORS OPENLY ADMIT TO DISCRIMINATING AGAINST POTENTIAL HIRES ON THE BASIS OF THEIR POLITICAL VIEWS?
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ARE HIRING BIASES A MAJOR REASON FOR THE DEARTH OF CONSERVATIVE PROFESSORS, OR IS IT MORE DUE TO SELF-SELECTION — I.E. ARE CONSERVATIVES MORE LIKELY TO CHOOSE EMPLOYMENT IN PRIVATE INDUSTRY?
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WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE GROWING TREND OF REQUIRING "DIVERSITY STATEMENTS" FROM FACULTY? DO THEY ENABLE SCREENING FACULTY ON THE BASIS OF THEIR POLITICAL BELIEFS?
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DO DIVERSITY STATEMENTS OFTEN INVOLVE "ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR OWN RACISM" AND IF SO, DOES THIS GIVE ADMINS AN EASY REASON TO FIRE TROUBLESOME PROFESSORS LATER ON — I.E. THEY'VE ALREADY ADMITTED THEY'RE A BIT RACIST?
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WHAT DOES "ACADEMIC FREEDOM" ENTAIL, AND HOW MUCH OF IT IS A SOCIAL NORM AS OPPOSED TO FORMAL LAW? DOES ACADEMIC FREEDOM ONLY EXIST AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES, OR PRIVATE COLLEGES AS WELL?
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ARE COURTS TODAY LESS WILLING TO PROTECT THE 1st AMENDMENT RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH OF TENURED PROFESSORS? DO NON-TENURED FACULTY MEMBERS HAVE THE SAME 1st AMENDMENT RIGHTS?
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DO COLLEGE PROFESSORS HAVE LESS CONTROL OVER THEIR CURRICULA & RESEARCH TODAY THAN IN THE PAST? IS THIS DUE TO THE DECLINE OF TENURE TRACK POSITIONS?
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CAN & SHOULD ACADEMIC FREEDOM BE EXTENDED TO NON-TENURED FACULTY, OR WOULD THAT JUST ENCOURAGE FIRING ON PRETEXTS?
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SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED OVER THINGS LIKE TURNING POINT USA'S "PROFESSOR WATCHLIST" AND "UN-KOCH MY CAMPUS" DIRECTING PUBLIC SCRUTINY OF TEACHERS' POLITICAL VIEWS?
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ARE MOST COLLEGE PROFESSORS FIRED OVER OBJECTIONABLE SPEECH PROGRESSIVES, AS JEFF SACHS ARGUES? IF SO, IS IT STILL THE CASE THAT CONSERVATIVE PROFESSORS ARE OVERREPRESENTED AMONG THOSE WHO ARE FIRED FOR THEIR SPEECH, CONSIDERING THEY'RE ABOUT A THIRD OF THE FIRINGS BUT LESS THAN A TENTH OF THE TOTAL FACULTY?
4a) Democracy Now w/ Henry Reichman, "What's the biggest threat to academic freedom?" (video - 3:12 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGmozPHcwCU
4b) Wochit News, "[Turning Point USA] Is Listing 'Anti-American' US Professors" (video - 1:09 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er2g0AJnBmI
4c) Christine Ravold, "UnKoch My Campus Wants To Ban Intellectual Diversity" (video - 2:49 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_lPjNrjdBA
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Jon A. Shields, "The Disappearing Conservative Professor"
https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-disappearing-conservative-professor -
Ashley Thorne, "Study Finds Conservative Professors Are Justified in Fears of Discrimination"
https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/study_finds_conservative_professors_are_justified_in_fears_of_discriminatio -
Elizabeth Nolan Brown, "'Cancel Culture' at U.S. Colleges Not Getting Worse, Say Liberal Professors. Conservative Colleagues Disagree." (summary of Pippa Norris' survey analysis)
https://reason.com/2020/08/06/cancel-culture-at-u-s-colleges-not-getting-worse-say-liberal-professors-conservative-colleagues-disagree/ -
Brian Leiter, "The Legal Problem With Diversity Statements: Public universities can’t make hiring decisions based on political viewpoints"
https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-legal-problem-with-diversity-statements/ -
Elizabeth Nolan Brown, "Academic Freedom Is On the Decline, and Here's the Data to Prove It: An analysis of 50 years of U.S. court cases shows professors seldom win in speech battles with school administrators, and it's only getting worse."
https://reason.com/blog/2016/05/11/academic-freedom -
Christopher Freiman, "Why Free Speech is Central to Universities’ Mission" (reply to Jeffrey A. Sachs' stats on faculty firings)
https://heterodoxacademy.org/mission-universities-free-speech/ -
Richard Ohmann, "Academic Freedom's Best Days: Academic freedom flourished in the late 1960s and early 1970s. What may be learned from that time to help us understand & act in our time?"
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/04/19/academic-freedoms-best-days -
John David, "Tracking 'Cancel Culture' in Higher Education"
https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/tracking-cancel-culture-in-higher-education -
Shannon Duffy, "Academic Freedom: Specfic Incidents Involving Academic Freedom"
https://guides.library.txstate.edu/c.php?g=973089&p=7087472
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Biweekly Discussion - Is/Was There a Campus Free Speech Crisis?