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Authored by Daniel Isfresne via Campus Reform,

A new Knight Foundation-Ipsos study shows a decline in students’ views concerning the state of free speech on college campuses.

The study, released on Tuesday, reveals several key findings, including that 70 percent of students “believe that speech can be as damaging as physical violence,” as two in three students report “self-censoring” on some topics during classroom discussions. 

Republican students self-censor more, with 49 percent self-censoring on three or more topics versus 38 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of independents. “Republicans also tend to be more likely to report self-censoring on gender or LGBTQ+ issues (55%), racial issues (44%), and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues (33%) than Democrats (32%, 30%, 15%) or independents (41%, 37%, 26%),” the results show.

1,678 currently enrolled college students aged 18 to 24 participated in the poll from March 7-28. Only 43 percent of these students feel that freedom of speech is very secure or secure today — that’s down from 73 percent of students who felt the same in 2016. 

Democrat students are also fueling the decrease in the percentage of those who believe free speech is secure. In 2021, 61 percent of Democrats said free speech was secure; that figure is 51 percent. 

Only about half of students (54 percent) believe colleges should “allow students to be exposed to all types of speech even if they may find it offensive or biased” — that percentage has decreased from 78 percent in 2016. 

60 percent of college students strongly or somewhat agree with the statement, “[t]he climate at my school or on my campus prevents some people from saying things they believe, because others might find it offensive.” 

Students want to participate in healthy debates, but only 32 percent say their college has programs specifically designed to promote constructive conversations among those who disagree. 

Eight percent of students report they would engage in disruptive actions—“either trying to stop a speech ahead of time or disrupt it during – to halt a speaker they oppose.”

In response to a request for comment from Campus Reform, the Knight Foundation shared a statement from Director of Impact and Learning, Kayla Gabriel: “It is our hope that campus leaders consider the opinions of students, as elevated in this research, as they cultivate their campus cultures this upcoming academic year.” 

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