The campus speech wars will continue in 2018 according to Suzanne Nossel, executive director of in a recent interview on NPR, “.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or , keeps up with, reports on, studies, surveys, and writes reports 鈥渢o defend and sustain individual rights at America鈥檚 colleges and universities.鈥� In , FIRE focused on four issues pertaining to students鈥�, teachers鈥�, and others鈥� rights to speak freely on campus even if we don鈥檛 like what they might say.
In February, FIRE released the 鈥攖eams that encourage students to formally report on one another and on faculty members whenever they subjectively perceive that someone鈥檚 speech is 鈥渂iased.鈥� The report found that 232 public and private American colleges and universities publicly maintained bias response programs, affecting an estimated 2.8 million students.
Colleges can鈥檛 legally 鈥渜uarantine鈥� free speech and FIRE鈥檚 won when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld FIRE鈥檚 victory at . Then in March, the project filed a new lawsuit against the that aims to free over 150,000 students from unconstitutional free speech zones. The litigation project鈥檚 13 total lawsuits have so far restored free speech rights to more than 270,000 students.
In May, Tennessee passed that FIRE called 鈥渢he most comprehensive state legislation protecting free speech on college campuses that we鈥檝e seen be passed anywhere in the country.鈥� The legislation requires institutions to adopt policies consistent with the which 鈥済uarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.鈥� The legislation in Tennessee prohibits the use of misleadingly labeled 鈥渇ree speech zones,鈥� bars institutions from rescinding invitations to speakers invited by students or faculty, and more. Campus free speech legislation also passed this year in , , and .
In October, FIRE released that found a majority of students on college campuses self-censor in class, support disinviting some guest speakers with whom they disagree, and don鈥檛 know that so-called 鈥渉ate speech鈥� is usually protected by the First Amendment. The study also found that Republican and Democratic students have different opinions on campus protests, disinvitations, and hate speech protections.