Free Speech College

The smell of freshly trimmed grass pervades the quad on campus while walking to a 9am class. A few birds spring from the winding pathways onto tall trees craning over bustling students. Flowers are beginning to bloom, and while on this stroll at a college that students are so proud of attending, something disrupts the tranquility. Screams and yells come from a group of raging students; trying to get past the rowdy crowd, they shove their opinions down your throat. But this is just another day at school that is becoming too familiar. As time goes on, free speech proves to be more disruptive than affective on college campuses.

College is a stepping-stone to a concrete career, for it’s a place for education and experience. Months before attending college, people search for the new place they will call home. Unfortunately, those places are also home to rallies, boycotts, and marches that are too often disorderly. Issues over race, politics, and religion are common, and most of the time, these topics will build up anger from those

involved. In order for change, there needs to be compromise since rage will not lead to a solution. If people are uncompromising and have no strategy, a certain moral purity will be achieved; however, this leads to more disjustice and despair, and that isn’t the source of progress. (Ehrlich). Although protestors might have the right intention, the only thing they seem to be boycotting is composure.
Most importantly, this anger also affects people’s learning environments.

The first priority of college is to better your education, but free speech can lead to distractions. Whether the protester or the bystander, both roles will have a toll on schooling. Someone involved with movements on campus could take time away from studying and academics, while others can’t study outside of their dorms without large crowds and noise. People imagine college campuses as large sanctuary, but “whether sitting in a large lecture hall, underneath a tree, or in front of a computer screen, students are engulfed by environmental information.” (Graetz). This is why the location of where people speak up can have such an impact on people just trying to get their degree. People gravitate towards colleges to demonstrate free speech, but why not the surrounding cities or the college towns? Students need to recall the reason they’re at college in the first

place.
As well as keeping other student’s surroundings in mind, keep in mind the negative impact words can have on anyone walking on campus. For example, at Yale University, an educator was personally attacked for an e-mail regarding the school’s halloween dress code. Sadly, she “became an unwitting target of campus protests against racial insensitivity” (Hartocollis) and ended up losing that job position. Students acted out with such fury; they ended up attacking the individual and not the idea itself. Because people taking part in free speech on campus go about it the wrong way so often, like they did at Yale, the majority of them have left a negative connotation on protests. Even if some movements on campus can be productive, guidelines and rules should be put in place to prevent the mayhem.
If demonstrations of free speech continue to take place on campus grounds, they should be nondisruptive. Angry disputes should be saved for areas outside of the universities. Many colleges have taken part in designating free speech zones to help this problem. There should be enough throughout campus so people don’t have to sign up or wait to speak their minds. In addition, individuals can’t be attacked, but their ideas can be the reason for protests. Finally, screaming and shouting shouldn’t be part of free speech on campus. Ideas can still get across while talking. If these rules are followed and people involved change their strategy, free speech at universities can start to positively affect campus.