53°F
weather icon Clear

EDITORIAL: California college administrator defends free speech on campus at UNLV forum

Free speech has been a controversial topic on college campuses of late — if you’re permitted to talk about it. Scores of recent examples have been well-documented involving university students, primarily of the progressive variety, seeking to censor speakers or ideas that might hurt their feelings.

On Tuesday, UNLV’s Boyd School of Law hosted a symposium at which participants discussed how to reverse this disturbing and dangerous trend.

“Physicists did not figure out whether light is a particle, a wave or something else by shouting each other down,” said Howard Gillman, chancellor at the University of California, Irvine. “You bring the ideas to the table, and you assume that anyone who is willing to be in partnership of you is deserving of your respect as engaged in common enterprise.”

Mr. Gillman articulated a notion that was only mildly contentious just a generation ago but must be considered radical given today’s climate: That any idea should be expressible on campus, and that students must not be punished for their expression, even if it falls under some vague and amorphous definition of “hate speech.”

Mr. Gillman went on to say that today’s college students lack an appreciation for the First Amendment and have little historical understanding of the importance of protecting unpopular speakers. Nor do they fully comprehend that government censorship and speech codes could one day be used to silence their own voices.

“They had no sense of the countervailing value that if you give the power of the censor to established officials,” he said, “they might now use the power in the way you think they will.”

Mr. Gillman’s comments are an indictment of the K-12 system, which for too long has favored more fashionable topics over the educational value of exploring the Constitution and the freedoms enshrined within. But he put his finger on another culprit when he noted, “Most of the time, when there are controversies, university leaders find themselves a bit tongue-tied.”

Bingo. A campus culture emanates from the top. Indulgent administrators who coddle those eager to subjugate the vital concept of free expression to the authoritarian whims of student agitators create the conditions in which intimidation and censorship thrive. Standing up for the freedom to protest is one thing. But standing idle as students threaten violence as a means of supressing viewpoints they find distasteful is indefensible.

“They come to college at the age of 18 having had no real experience in talking to people who have views that are different than theirs,” said Barbee Oakes, UNLV’s chief diversity officer. “And until we’re willing to take that on seriously, I think the arguments will continue to grow, and campus environments will become more volatile.”

Which makes it even more important that university adults strongly articulate the principles embraced by Mr. Gillman of UC-Irvine: That if students have come to campus to be shielded from ideas and concepts that make them uncomfortable, they’re in the wrong place.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST
EDITORIAL: Blame Canada

Trudeau embraces widespread state censorship.