Protests and Politics at Northwestern

In the newly released 2020 College Free Speech Rankings, Northwestern ranked number 17 out of 55 universities across the nation. Out of 17 private universities included, it ranked fifth after Yale, Brown, Duke and the University of Chicago.

The 2020 College Free Speech Rankings, conducted by RealClearEducation, College Pulse, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), offer a comprehensive comparison of the student experience of free speech on campuses. The rankings are based on a survey of approximately 20,000 currently enrolled students and are designed “to help parents and prospective students choose the right college.”

The rankings are comprised of 38 public universities and 17 private universities. The findings are predicated on each school’s written policies on free speech as well as a student survey about free expression on campus.

Northwestern received an overall score of 54.1 out of 100 in the College Free Speech Rankings, compared to 64.2 for the University of Chicago, which received the highest rating of any school, public or private.

According to the methodology of the survey, student responses on “tolerance” and “openness” each count for 40% of the score. “Self-expression” counts toward 12%, while “administrative support” and FIRE’s “Speech Code” rating each count for 4%.

The survey finds that race “is the topic most frequently identified by students as difficult to have an open and honest conversation about on campus.” This is in contrast to most other schools in the survey, where students said abortion was the toughest topic.

Students make a big distinction between stopping speech on campus with verbal versus violent disruption. Fewer than one in four (23%) say that it is “never acceptable to shout down a speaker on campus,” while three in four (77%) say that it is “never acceptable to use violent protest to stop a speech on campus.”

Surprisingly, these responses are not substantially different from those students gave at the top-ranked University of Chicago. However, students at Northwestern have less confidence that the administration will support their free speech (70%) compared to Chicago (92%).

SESSIONS AND FUNDING

Northwestern students’ concerns are illustrated well by the shouting and violence that accompanied an event nearly a year ago, hosted by Northwestern’s College Republicans in conjunction with Young America’s Foundation. In early November of 2019, former United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a lecture at the conservative group’s invitation, drawing many students to the event to protest.

According to The Daily Northwestern, students shouted and screamed at Sessions after gaining entry “by climbing through open windows and pushing through doors.”

Walter Herbst, professor of engineering and faculty advisor for the College Republicans, told RealClearEducation that police escorted him out of the building when the protests erupted, fearing for his safety as an event organizer.

Although Sessions was able to complete his speech and take questions from the audience, the disturbance prevented Sessions’ fans and critics from hearing him at times, according to Herbst. 

“Regardless of politics, Sessions is a speaker that we thought all students might want to hear from,” Herbst said in a phone interview, calling himself one of the only openly conservative professors on campus. “It was really unfortunate that the event got disrupted. The audience was made up of people on both sides of the political aisle.”

The university police identified several students and community members who entered through the windows and precluded police from doing their jobs, according to Herbst, but no charges were filed.

“It was like a slap in the face,” said Herbst. “The school knew exactly who these individuals were and refused to even consider pressing criminal charges for their disruptive and destructive behavior.”

In December, the university issued a statement saying that a “small number of individuals have been issued citations by NUPD for disorderly conduct and interfering with the duties of a police officer.” It said each citation carried a maximum fine of $125 but did not say what the fines were for each individual. The citations were civil actions and did not create a criminal record.

Following the Sessions event, the Associated Student Government declined to support a free speech resolution that was proposed in early 2020. 

It wasn’t the student government’s only failure to support speech equally, Herbst said. He was “shocked” to learn, upon becoming faculty advisor in 2019, that the College Republicans received just a quarter of the budget for the College Democrats – $20,000 versus $80,000.

“When I asked about the dramatic difference in the funding we received compared to the College Democrats, I was told that the funding was based upon the attendance rate of events in recent years,” explained Herbst. 

According to College Republicans treasurer, Henry Kadka, the Associated Student Government (ASG) is in charge of the allocation of funds. 

The College Republicans have received substantially less than the College Republicans “for years,” despite having “comparable turnout to our speaker events,” wrote Khadka in an email to RealClearEducation. 

In his email, Khadka attached a screenshot showing the different amounts of funding for the 2020-2021 academic year. According to this screenshot, College Democrats received nearly three and a half times more ($55,786) than the College Republicans ($15,858.13).

College Democrats program director, Adam Downing, initially agreed to an interview with RealClearEducation; however, he cancelled just an hour before it was scheduled to take place. 

PERCEPTION OF PROTESTS AND STUDENTS

According to Herbst, despite the violence and disruptions at the Sessions event, he considers most Northwestern students to be “very polite and respectful.”

“They’re generally liberal, of course–many 18 to 20-year-olds are,” but many “do, in fact, enjoy civil discussion and listening to others–at least from what I’ve seen.”

However, on the weekend of Oct. 17, protesters surrounded President Morton Schapiro’s home and demanded his resignation for refusing to defund university police and sever ties with the Evanston Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

Protesters vandalized university property, specifically the iconic Weber Arch that serves as a gateway to the campus, by spray painting phrases such as “more dead pigs” and “abolish police,” according to the Chicago Tribune. 

On Oct. 19, Schapiro released a letter condemning the protesters who visited his house in the middle of the night.
He wrote that protesters chanted profanities, such as “f--k you Morty” and “piggy Morty.” He suggested the reference to pigs may demonstrate anti-Semitism, since he’s an observant Jew.

“Northwestern firmly supports vigorous debate and the free expression of ideas,” he wrote. “We encourage members of our community to find meaningful ways to get involved and advocate for causes they believe in – and to do so safely and peacefully.” What it will “not condone [is] breaking the law.”

Cole Sias, a junior psychology major, agreed “in general” with Schapiro’s perception. “I think NU allows for free speech, particularly through the school newspaper The Daily,” she said. “They have plenty of options to write in, report tips, and more,” but admitted the student newspaper is “definitely biased in a liberal way.” (The Daily eventually apologized to readers for publishing photos of activists crawling through windows to disrupt the Sessions event.)

SPEECH RATING

FIRE rates Northwestern as a “red light” institution, meaning it “has at least one policy” that “unambiguously infringes on what is or should be protected expression” in a substantial way. Northwestern made FIRE’s list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech twice in recent years – 2016 and 2018.

It made the 2016 list for “two of the worst attacks on academic freedom” that FIRE said it’s seen in recent years. The first was a 70-day “inquisition” of Professor Laura Kipnis for penning an essay that was critical of the “sexual paranoia” in the modern academy, as exemplified in Title IX proceedings.

The second was the censorship of a faculty-produced bioethics journal because of an article that described a paralyzed man receiving oral sex from one of his nurses. Afraid the article would tarnish the medical school’s name, Northwestern created an oversight committee to review the journal’s content prior to publication, causing then-editor, Professor Alice Dreger, to resign in protest.

“An institution in which the faculty are afraid to offend the dean is not an institution where I can in good conscience do my work,” Dreger wrote in her resignation letter.

Herbst has a different perception of the administration, at least in contrast to his dealings with the student government.

Though his conservative views make him a minority among colleagues and superiors, Herbst said that the administration doesn’t place restrictions on what its faculty can teach.

“I don’t go into each class to deliver a political message,” said Herbst. “If I think an opinion of mine is of value, I’ll share it. I don’t fear sharing my opinion with my students. I think it is very important to hear from and talk with someone who doesn’t agree with you on everything.”

William Reno, professor and chair of the political science department, sympathizes with the trade-off’s administrators have to make when it comes to academic controversies.

“I’d hate to be a ‘real’ administrator now,” he told RealClearEducation. “Many of them would make a lot more if they were in non-academic sectors.”

Reno considers 2020 to be “interesting” in terms of speech rights and academic freedom because of how many faculty and students are not on campus due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Combined with these restrictions, the election “has had a significant influence on how students and faculty express their view,” he wrote in an email. “It has become more difficult for students,” particularly those who are “more politically engaged,” because “they operate in an environment in which there is less middle ground among their peers.