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 |  Subject: Interesting results from campus "free speech" survey  Sat Nov 02, 2019 2:47 am | |
| Among U.S. colleges and universities that do the most to promote free speech, no one holds a candle to the University of Chicago. So say respondents to a survey that one hopes might someday include a school or two from Oklahoma.
RealClearEducation, an arm of the political website RealClearPolitics, invited 70 policy experts, academics and pundits to provide their five best and five worst schools for free speech and viewpoint diversity. It’s a worthy cause — too often in recent years, speakers have had their presentations canceled or disrupted by those who oppose the message. Conservatives have been the most frequent targets.
Why is this issue important? Wolf von Laer, CEO of the worldwide libertarian group Students for Liberty, noted that, “Progress can only come from challenging the status quo.”
“This can only come about when people think and act differently than others,” von Laer said. “Free speech and peaceful — even if heated — exchanges are the foundation for this.”
RealClearEducation said it split its invitations roughly in half between those on the left and right. Of the 22 invitees who completed the survey, a majority were right-leaning. “This imbalance is itself instructive,” wrote Nathan Harden, the site’s education editor. He cited a recent Pew Research Center study that found Republicans are far more concerned than Democrats about professors bringing their political and social views into the classroom, and that colleges are too concerned with protecting students from views they may find offensive.
Harden emphasized that the survey “is not, to be clear, a scientific poll.” But the results were interesting nonetheless.
Among schools that serve as positive role models for free speech and open inquiry, the University of Chicago lapped the field. In 2014, the school famously produced its “Chicago Statement” in which it extolled the importance of free speech and promised strong academic freedoms for students.
Next on the “best” list was Purdue University, followed by Princeton University, the University of Virginia, Arizona State University and Claremont McKenna College in California.
Yale University led the list of schools that respondents said had the most need for improvement. This shouldn't be surprising, given that Yale has been a hotbed of illiberal activity in recent years.
Following Yale were Harvard University, Williams College, Oberlin College, Liberty University, DePaul University and Brown University.
The list of laudable universities included 32 schools, two of which are from the Big 12 — Kansas State and the University of Texas. The not-so-good list stretched to 48 schools, including the University of Kansas. No schools from Oklahoma were on either list.
Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University and among those who participated in the RealClearEducation survey, called freedom of speech and thought “the oxygen of the life and the mind.” Here’s hoping Oklahoma’s colleges and universities do all in their power to keep that airflow unencumbered.
https://oklahoman.com/article/5645726/interesting-results-from-campus-free-speech-survey |
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