Survey Shows Weak Respect for Free Speech by Princeton Students

​Princetonians for Free Speech released a survey of Princeton University students that paints a harrowing portrait of student opinion regarding the first and most important item in the Bill of Rights.
 

• Only 30 percent of students say all speech protected by the First Amendment should be allowed.

 

• 40 percent say an athletic team should be able to deny a spot to, or suspend, a student who expresses views others find offensive.

 

• Only 24 percent say it is never appropriate to shout down a speaker. Only 57 percent say it is never appropriate to block other students from attending a speech; and 16 percent say it might at least on rare occasions be appropriate to use violence to block a speaker.

 
When asked about their own speech, students reported:
 

• 70 percent would be very or somewhat uncomfortable publicly disagreeing with a professor in class on a controversial topic.

 

• 56 percent say they would be very or somewhat uncomfortable expressing their views in class on a controversial topic.

 
Princeton is by no means alone. If polls of student opinion regarding free speech were taken at many other higher education institutions, we have no doubt that similar results would be seen.
 
Like many other universities, Princeton has struggled to defend speech in the age of cancellation. This survey falls on the heels of the firing of Joshua Katz, and comes after the enunciation of a free speech policy by Princeton University president Christopher Eisgruber.
 
Perhaps the Princeton community would do well to consider the words of one of its most famous alumni, a graduate from the days when the university was called the College of New Jersey.
 
James Madison, father of the First Amendment, wrote: “There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”