Speech might be the only thing that's free on our college campuses. (Check out tuition these days.) Though speech might not be free for everyone. It seems some colleges like to stifle free speech behind burdensome permitting processes or limited areas for open discourse. Well, the president has had enough of that.
Following our state's passage of a law that rids campuses of "free speech zones," where those with troublesome viewpoints could be tucked away in small isolated corners of campus, President Trump has now signed an executive order reminding universities that his administration controls a good chunk of their funding.
"Under the policy I am announcing today, federal agencies will use their authority, under various grant-making programs, to ensure that public universities cherish the First Amendment, the First Amendment rights of their students, or risk losing billions and billions of federal taxpayer dollars," the president said. "Every year the federal government provides educational institutions with more than $35 billion in research funding. All of that money is now at stake."
Besides the money, college administrations really need to ask themselves: What's better for a healthy student body? A carefully selected list of allowable philosophies and political ideology, or unfettered access to the marketplace of ideas?
Students develop best on campus when they're exposed to a wide range of experiences. If colleges teach students it's okay to operate with tunnel vision the rest of their lives, ignoring beliefs they disagree with, we end up with another generation of echo chambers. We've got enough of that now.
If students graduate in four years (or more) without having their beliefs challenged, that university has failed its students. Real life outside of college campuses is full of clashing opinions. They take the form of protesters, hiring managers, the person sitting across from you on the bus, that congregation across the street from yours, and more. It's time all of our universities prepared their students for that.
Editorial on 03/25/2019