Comfort Expressing Views on Campus
- Less than one-in-four students (22%) reported that they felt “very comfortable” expressing their views on a controversial political topic in a discussion with other students in a common campus space.
- Even fewer said this about:
- Expressing disagreement with one of their professors about a controversial topic in a written assignment (20%);
- Expressing their views on a controversial political topic during an in-class discussion (17%);
- Expressing an unpopular opinion to their peers on a social media account tied to their name (14%); and,
- Publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic (13%).
Difficult Topics to Discuss
- Abortion, COVID-19 vaccine mandates, gun control, mask mandates, police misconduct, racial inequality, and transgender issues were all identified by at least 40% of students surveyed as “difficult to have an open and honest conversation about on your campus.”
Self-Censorship on Campus
- Over three-in-five students (63%) were worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstood something they said or did.
- Roughly one-in-five students (21%) reported that they self-censor “very” or “fairly” often, the same percentage also said that they felt “a good deal” or “a great deal” of pressure to avoid discussing controversial topics in class.
Speaker Tolerance
- Opposition to allowing controversial conservative speakers on campus ranged from 59% to 73% of the students surveyed, depending on the speaker.
- On some campuses, this percentage reached 90%.
- Opposition to controversial liberal speakers ranged from 24% to 41% depending on the speaker.
Administrative Support
- Fewer than one-third of students (32%) agree that their college administration makes it either very or extremely clear to the student body that they protect free speech on campus.
- Just under one-in-four students (24%) say is is very or extremely likely that they would defend a speaker’s rights during a campus controversy.