Students Are Self-Censoring: America Must Take Note
The landscape of higher education in the United States is marked by extraordinary diversity. From massive public institutions like the University of Central Florida, boasting nearly 60,000 undergraduates, to Saint Louis University, a private Jesuit research institution venerating faith, and recognized as the oldest university west of the Mississippi River, to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, a small liberal arts college with just over a thousand students, there exists a wide spectrum of institutions in terms of size, mission, and educational approaches across the nation. But students at these varied institutions share a common problem—widespread self-censorship.
Having personally visited numerous institutions across the country, I've observed a disconcertingly common trend on most campuses, irrespective of their diverse educational experiences and cultures: students from all backgrounds are gripped by a pervasive fear of speaking out and expressing their opinions. They regularly engage in self-censorship, restraining themselves from asking questions, openly sharing their thoughts in front of professors and peers, and taking intellectual risks due to the dread of being labeled or ostracized.
This unsettling observation finds robust support in the most recent data on free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The FIRE survey, encompassing over fifty-five thousand students at 254 colleges and universities, starkly underscores the prevalence of self-censorship among students. The data reveals that a majority of students, regardless of their backgrounds, are choosing silence, an outcome antithetical to the principles of genuine liberal education.
The survey by FIRE gauges students' reluctance to express their opinions on a subject due to potential negative reactions from fellow students, professors, or the administration on campus. Alarmingly, half of all students, both men and women alike, report occasionally or more frequently engaging in self-censorship. Across racial groups, there is little discernible variation: 48 percent of Hispanics, 52 percent of Blacks, 52 percent of Asians, and 49 percent of Whites admit to self-censoring at least occasionally. This phenomenon cuts across the divide between private and public institutions, affecting a majority of students regardless of the type of school they attend.
The palpable tension on campuses is unmistakable. Students find themselves pondering the potential damage to their reputations before sharing their views in classrooms, dining halls, and even their dormitories. Astonishingly, 56 percent of all students express concerns about harming their reputation, with no significant differences based on gender or racial background.
This anxiety is shared equally by students in liberal arts colleges (62 percent) and universities (55 percent), as they grapple with the fear of how their opinions might be received.
Predictably, when students are asked about the pressure they feel to avoid discussing contentious topics in their classes, high-pressure situations are nearly universal. A staggering 72 percent of all students indicate they experience at least some pressure to steer clear of certain subjects in class. Classrooms, traditionally regarded as spaces for the free exchange of ideas and robust debate, seem to have fallen short of this ideal. This pervasive pressure to remain silent is not confined to particular racial or gender groups. It is a universal phenomenon, highlighting a distressing decline in our spaces of inquiry and curiosity.
Irrespective of institutional ranking, students, whether attending elite schools or public state universities, share a common fear of damaging their reputations within the classroom. Across the nation, students traverse their campuses burdened by fear. The marketplace of ideas can only thrive when a multitude of perspectives are shared, challenged, examined, and debated—an environment currently lacking in our educational institutions. Progressive monocultures continue to impede the free exchange of ideas, prompting us to question the purpose of an academic enterprise built on inquiry and discussion when it appears to have already predetermined answers to life's most complex questions.
If our nation's institutions of higher learning are to uphold the values of exploration, curiosity, and discovery, as exemplified by institutions like Kenyon College, which regards its students as "partners in inquiry," then they are undeniably falling short. Concerns about open expression cut across all student constituencies and are pervasive on nearly every campus in the United States. Rather than fixating on specific groups that have historically been marginalized or harmed, we must recognize that free speech is being curtailed for everyone, everywhere. It is imperative that we commit to substantial changes aimed at revitalizing the culture of debate and discourse.
