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 DePauw University again finished last in the 2021 College Free
Speech Rankings, the second annual campus-speech-related survey and rankings
project sponsored by the research firm College Pulse, the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and RealClearEducation. More than 37,000
students at 159 colleges and universities participated in the survey, and their
responses helped determine each school’s place in the 2021 rankings.
What contributed to DePauw’s low ranking? Survey results and
student responses to open-ended survey prompts suggest that DePauw’s biggest
speech-related challenge may be the censorious views of its students. Only 30%
of DePauw students said it was “never acceptable” to use violence to stop a
speech on campus, meaning more than two-thirds of students surveyed feel
violence can be an appropriate response to disagreeable speech. Seventy-six
percent of students surveyed said they would oppose allowing a speaker on campus
who believed abortion should be illegal. Some students feel censorship is the
appropriate response to speakers with “harmful” views.
“I do not hold views that are harmful to others so [self-censorship] is not a
problem I face,” one DePauw student told pollsters.
Only seven percent of DePauw students reported having “never” felt unable to
express their opinion on a subject.
Many DePauw students also lack confidence in the administration’s commitment to
free speech. Only 57% of DePauw students felt the administration was likely to
defend a speaker’s right to express himself in a speech-related controversy,
compared to 89% of students surveyed at top-ranked Claremont McKenna College.
Students’ lack of confidence may stem from the administration’s inconsistent
approach to speech issues. In the student handbook, DePauw tells students they
“are free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to
express their opinions publicly and privately.” However, in its Electronic
Communications and Acceptable Use Policy, the school prohibits students from
making or otherwise transmitting “offensive comments” on their electronic
devices.
DePauw is a private university and therefore is not required to
protect students’ constitutional speech rights. Still, said FIRE’s Adam
Goldstein, the school owes students consistency.
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“There are three basic problems. One is that DePauw
promises that ‘students are free to examine and discuss all
questions of interest to them and to express their opinions publicly
and privately,’” Goldstein told RealClearEducation. “So having made
that promise, the second problem is that the terms ‘inappropriate’
and ‘offensive’ give a student no actual warning about what conduct
is prohibited, because what any given administrator might consider
‘inappropriate’ or ‘offensive’ might change. And the third problem
is that, whatever those words happen to mean on a given day, they
mean something less than the freedom to ‘examine and discuss all
questions of interest’ DePauw promises elsewhere in its handbook.”
RealClearEducation asked DePauw whether the school believed it was
necessary to place limits on students’ expressive freedoms in order
to achieve a more inclusive and equitable campus environment but did
not receive a response.
Ultimately, the biggest problem for DePauw’s campus-speech culture
may be its lack of ideological diversity. One DePauw student, asked
by survey proctors whether he had ever felt unable to express his
opinion on a subject for fear of peer, faculty, or administrative
reprisal, gave a telling answer.
“I have rarely felt this way,” the student said, “because many of my
professors and students surrounding me share my political views.”
On the other hand, a survey response from one self-described
conservative student revealed a different experience. She said that
her brother, also a conservative, “decided not to go to DePauw
because of the lack of free speech here.”
“It's unbelievable,” she added. “Two years ago, Condoleezza Rice
came to speak and DePauw professors told their students not to
attend the speech because they think she's a war criminal. That
behavior is the antithesis of free speech and liberal learning.”
John Hirschauer is a staff writer for the RealClear
Foundation. Explore the College Free Speech Rankings at
RealClearEducation.com/speech/
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