Gallup found that almost 60% of Americans had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of faith in U.S. colleges and universities as a whole in 2015. Today, only 36% of people who answered agree, which is about the same percentage as those who say they have only “some” faith (32%), very little confidence (32%), or none at all (32%).
Republicans’ respect for higher education has dropped a lot, but independents and Democrats’ trust has dropped by more than 10% as well.
American academia’s image has been hurt by well-known and shocking acts of illiberalism on campus, such as institutional discrimination against dissenting voices and destructive riots by antisemites and other extremists.
There are, however, schools that are not as badly run as Harvard and Columbia. We have many public and private campuses in our state where free speech is the standard, not the exception.
The latest rankings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression show that North Carolina State University is the seventh best school in the country at protecting students’ right to free speech and open research.
At the biggest public university in our state, student self-censorship and violations of academic freedom don’t happen very often. Also, FIRE gives N.C. State a “green light” for its written rules that protect and define free speech.
FIRE’s rankings are based on 14 factors that were gathered from student polls. Half of them look at how students feel about the campus environment for free speech. The other half look at how managers, teachers, and students act when it comes to free speech.
Other schools in the top quartile are East Carolina University (13th), UNC-Greensboro (22nd), Appalachian State University (24th), Duke University (27th), and UNC-Chapel Hill (62nd).
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is placed ninth out of 257 ranked or flagged campuses. In the second half are Wake Forest University (ranked 78th) and Davidson College (ranked 127th).
Also, there aren’t any North Carolina schools near the bottom of the list. The list is mostly made up of “elite” schools like Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Syracuse, and NYU, as well as a few religious schools that don’t even pretend to protect academic and free speech rights fully.
Now, just because a lot of our public and private institutions protect freedom, mutual respect, and the rule of law, that doesn’t mean they could be better. The FIRE study not only shows the general survey results, but it also shows upsetting quotes from present and past students.
One UNC-Chapel Hill student said, “It scares me to say what I think in public.”
“In class, discussions about political views aren’t always handled very well,” said a UNC-C student. I don’t want to say anything because I think people aren’t willing to hear another point of view.
A student at N.C. State said, “As a Republican, it’s hard for me to say what I think to people who I know don’t agree with me.” I think this goes both ways, but it seems like if someone disagrees with you, you’re immediately labeled as racist, even if that’s not the case at all.
Individuals at a school may not feel safe expressing or criticizing certain views in public, even if the school has strong formal or informal free speech protections. Since I taught at Duke for many years, I don’t want to set unreasonable standards or push for policies that won’t work.
Even so, I strongly think that cultural norms are at least as important as written rules when it comes to promoting free speech and open inquiry on campus.
When university leaders act in a good way, like staying neutral on political issues and promoting healthy debate on campus between individuals speaking for themselves, they help to shape the rules that people follow.
Carolina, the school I went to, has a slogan called Lux Libertas, which means “Light and Liberty” in Latin. If academics wants to win back the public’s trust, it needs to stand up for these core values.