Proposed order on campus speech follows wave of complaints
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump’s proposed executive order to protect free speech on college campuses follows a growing chorus of complaints from conservatives that the nation’s universities are attempting to silence their voices when they’re heckled, disinvited or their presence on campus is otherwise discouraged.
Critics counter that conservatives are turning the shared goal of protecting free speech into a partisan fight.
It’s unclear what Trump’s order will contain, but the administration has been laying the groundwork for it for months.
The Justice Department has filed statements in various lawsuits siding with students who had alleged that schools had infringed on their right to freedom of speech. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions opined at a forum last fall that the issue had reached a pivotal point, saying “it is time to stand up to the bullies on campus and in our culture.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a similar assessment, saying “administrators too often attempt to shield students from ideas they subjectively decide are hateful or offensive or injurious, or ones they just don’t like.”
Trump’s proposed executive order, unveiled Saturday during a speech to conservative activists, has drawn criticism from some higher education leaders including President Robert Zimmer of the University of Chicago, a frequent champion of free speech. In a campus email, Zimmer said new regulation would be “a grave error” and would give federal officials dangerous authority to interfere in campus speech issues.
“This opens the door to any number of troubling policies over time that the federal government, whatever the political party involved, might adopt on such matters,” he said. “It makes the government, with all its power and authority, a party to defining the very nature of discussion on campus.”