To Know, To Utter, and To Argue

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” - John Milton, Areopagitica 

Unless you're a hermit dwelling somewhere in the woods of Black Moshannon State Park, you're probably aware of the intense protests that have erupted in the wake of last year's election results. Protest as a form of political and civil discourse is nothing new in America; it's sort of our thing. And perhaps no other environment in the country is more conducive for engaging in this sort of activity than the college campus. Colleges are like the metaphorical bowls that all the necessary ingredients are mixed in; a variety of differing opinions, religions, identities, backgrounds, and course offerings all aid in informing the public discourse of every campus in the country, including this one. 

The modern idea of free speech has waxed and waned throughout our country's history, but the First Amendment really began to come under fire from colleges in the 1980s. In the decades prior, campuses were a hotbed of anti-government protest, tackling heavy issues like the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, and initial justifications for campus censorship kept this in mind. Colleges saw a massive influx of diverse bodies of students as discrimination began to collapse, and sought to prevent friction between them, initially targeting what was labeled as "offensive speech." But here's the catch: there's no one definition for what that kind of speech entails. 

Credit: Frank Esposito/The Daily Collegian

I probably don't need to draw a diagram to illustrate the hang-ups that can arise from this kind of broad-strokes decision-making. For one, it stifles one of the key tenets of a college education itself: broadening your perspective of the world by exposing yourself to new and different ideas. If we limit ourselves solely to ideas that are "safe" or "comfortable", we're denying the experience that can be gained along with them, even if all we get out of it is deciding that we don't agree. But even if we do disagree, at least we'll know that we went beyond our comfort zones and got a taste of the real world, where ideas and opinions number as many as the people who hold them. 

In that spirit, the other reason we go to college is to prepare ourselves for life in the adult world. As much as we may not like to admit it, we're not full-time adults. We enjoy a kind of semi-autonomy, but are still governed by expectations of those around us to eventually leave school behind and take our proper places. In the adult world, we won't have advisers and helpful professors watching out for us as we hover between decisions; everything ultimately comes to rest on our shoulders. Thus, it's critical that we familiarize ourselves with conflict and disagreement with others, even if it's difficult to even breathe the same air as them.

 It's an inevitability of life that we'll run into people and ideas that we dislike, but many colleges seem keen on telling us that those situations don't really exist. There's no disciplinary committee to whisk people away when they hurt our feelings; it's something we have to deal with ourselves. By taking that exposure to speech away, colleges are creating a generation that's critically unprepared for the world it's about to run headlong in to. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, overzealous speech regulations create an Orwellian atmosphere of fear around speaking one's mind without reprisal. In a 2015 visit to Yale University, The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf documented several instances of professors and students being afraid to speak openly about campus controversies. In their minds, their places at Yale would be jeopardized and they could be at risk from attacks by disagreeing activists simply for speaking honestly. 

This is no way for anyone on campus, student or faculty, to have to feel; colleges are intended to be bastions of deliberation and debate, not restrictive and controlling environments where any statement is subject to ridicule and attack, or worse, disciplinary action. But aren't speech codes intended to prevent people from feeling this way? Unfortunately, the message these types of restrictions send are ringing loud and clear: don't speak your mind and you won't get in trouble. 

As a final note, FIRE, The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, maintains a list of colleges and ranks them red, yellow, or green based on how well they handle speech on campus. Penn State got a red rating, the worst of the three, for having "at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech," in this case the broad sexual harassment policy; policy for outdoor activity space didn't fare much better. 

As an experiment, take a moment before you say something that could be controversial or uncomfortable, and think about how you feel? Are you scared? Nervous? How free do you really feel to say what you want to say? The results might just surprise you.