geoff: Since the terror attack
by hamas and Israel's ongoing
response, there have been bitter
debates on many college campuses
over who bears responsibility.
This plays into already raging
debates at many schools over
free speech and increasingly
academic freedom.
Judy woodruff visited four
colleges in an effort to
understand how this all fits
into America's deep political
divide.
It is part of her ongoing series
"America at a crossroads."
>> [Chanting]
>> It is disgusting.
Disgusting.
It is disgusting.
Judy: These are just some of the
things invited guests to college
campuses have heard in recent
years, as they were shouted
down, mocked, and otherwise
prevented from speaking.
In one incident at New York's
Cornell university last year,
conservative commentator and
colder was met with forceful --
Ann Coulter was met with
forceful protests.
Students inside the room
repeatedly disrupted her speech.
>> Ms. Coulter is going to stop
her speech if we are not able to
hear her.
If you would like to protest,
there is a space to do that
outside.
Judy: Until she walked out after
20 minutes.
Nick wising, the president of
Cornell Democrats and others,
protested outside the law school
where Coulter was speaking.
Did you think it was a good
thing she had been shouted down?
>> Her brand is controversy.
But I think we need to be very
careful about hatred
masquerading as argumentation.
Judy: But did you think she
should have been allowed to
speak?
>> I think it was pretty
immature the way that people
interrupted her speech.
Judy: Arman chancellor is a
member of Cornell Republicans.
She was in the room during the
event.
>> I think it shows a dislike of
Republicans more broadly, and
conservatives.
Even before she spoke, there
were lots of attacks at
Republicans themselves.
Judy: Rebecca wrote about the
incident in the student
newspaper, the Cornell sun.
>> I don't think>> We should be
endorsing views that are racist
or sexist or anything like that.
But I do think it is important
to hear all of these views
because when you are out in the
real world, I think you hear
people discussing things that
are not for the good of society.
You have to learn how to react.
Judy: Not all students agree.
According to recent polling by
the foundation for into jewel
rights and expression -- for
individual rights and
expression, 62% of U.S. College
students said shouting down a
speaker was acceptable to some
degree.
20% said using violence to
disrupt a speaking event would
be acceptable to some degree.
In recent years, there have been
increasing attempts by students
to dis-invite or shut down
speakers, with dozens of
incidents each year.
And Americans across the
political spectrum say they view
colleges as unfriendly to
conservative ideas.
Just 20% say they feel
conservatives have a lot of
freedom to express their views
on campus, according to polling
done by the associated press.
Following the Ann Coulter
incident at Cornell, the
students who interrupted her
were sanctioned by the
university, and Cornell
president Martha Pollock
announced the freedom of
expression is the theme of this
academic year.
>> Free expression is critical
to everything we do in the
university.
Judy: Her school is one of a
group of 13 universities that
have banded together to
highlight their concern about
this issue.
>> I felt it was a moment where
free expression is under attack
from both sides of the political
spectrum, and it seemed
important that universities like
ours take the lead.
There are students and others
who look at Ann Coulter and look
at that message and say, that is
not a message we should hear.
That is a message of hate.
Why should we have to listen to
it?
The problem with declaring
things as hate speech and
putting them out of bounds is
someone has to get to decide
what counts as hate speech.
It is really very dangerous to
seed the right to express your
views to someone else.
History has shown us over and
over that when you cede that
right, it is the marginal groups
that lose.
>> On college campuses in
particular, there is not much
civil discourse going on at all.
Judy: Ilya Shapiro does a
constitutional scholar who spent
years at the cato institute and
was briefly the executive
director director of the
Georgetown law school's center
for the constitution.
That job was interrupted almost
immediately by an investigation
into a tweet Shapiro wrote just
before he started, when
president Biden committed to
nominating a black woman to the
supreme court.
>> It didn't sit right with me
that president Biden said he was
restricting his search by race
and sex.
And late at night on Twitter,
not a best practice -- I don't
recommend this -- I fired off
what is a hot take before going
to bed.
I didn't phrase it the way I
would have wished.
Judy: Schapiro says because he
meant this court would have
a lesser black woman.
>> And we would end up with
someone who was less qualified,
in this case, a less qualified
black woman.
I didn't phrase that very well.
That provoked a firestorm and
led to four months of
investigation.
Judy: Georgetown administrators
ultimately cleared Schapiro of
wrongdoing on a technicality.
Nevertheless, he resigned in
protest.
He now contends his
experience is representative of
a general climate of fear and
censorship on campuses
across the nation.
>> There is a bureaucracy that
has sprung up, particularly the
diversity and equity inclusion
offices, that I think phone
meant and illiberal trend to
stifle freedom of space.
>> I want you to disagree with
me.
I need you to disagree with me.
I look at it through a different
lens.
Judy: Weathers the right or the
left, in response to what
everyone virtually agrees is a
hyper politically
conscious atmosphere, some
colleges are taking steps to
encourage productive
conversations among students and
faculty.
>> I have to understand your
experiences and you have to
understand mine.
Judy: The American university
project on civic dialogue
created what they call "Disagree
with a professor" sessions.
>> My position is we
should keep that option that a
juvenile is tried as an adult.
Judy: On Wednesday night,
professor Kevin Boyle gave a
lecture designed to provoke
disagreement among students.
>> Juvenile sentencing and
juvenile cases are about
rehabilitation and helping kids
and juveniles.
But adult prison is a sentence
to nothingness, you know?
Judy: American university
students we spoke to had varied
opinions about the state of
dialogue at their school.
Do you feel that when you finish
school and you are out in the
world that you will be able to
have conversations with people
who have profoundly different
political views from you?
>> Yes.
I feel I have been exposed so
much that when it does come up
again in the future, I am not
going to be shaken by or taken
aback or scared to speak up.
Judy: Is there a sense that
students can speak up and speak
their mind?
>> Well, I don't think so.
If you are looking for a job and
looking to have a social life,
you don't want to be at the
center of a firestorm around
politics.
Judy: Professor Laura sch
wartz founded the project on
civic dialogue, which hosts the
disagree with a professor
sessions, and encourages
students to engage in dialogue.
>> We are at a time where many
people instead of coming to
conclusions based on inquiry
check what their team thinks
about an issue and says, that is
what I think about an issue.
When you poll students, the
overwhelming majority, 80% or
more, say it is really important
to hear from different
perspectives.
But we don't have a lot of
practice in our society doing
that.
Judy: But even as a number of
campuses like American and
Cornell moved to confront
concerns about limited speech,
there is a growing worry among
other schools as conservative
state governments are moving in
the opposite direction.
Eight states now have laws on
the books that limit what state
run college and university
professors can teach in their
classrooms.
Florida's law is the most
specific, and so far, the most
restrictive.
The law, sb-266, makes it
illegal to teach students that
systemic racism, sexism,
oppression, and privilege are
inherent in the institutions of
the United States.
It also restricts funding for
any campus activities that
advocate for diversity, equity,
and inclusion, or promote and
engage in political or social
activism.
>> We want to be able to have a
government of freedom.
It is very simple.
Judy: Professor Sarah Hernandez
teaches sociology at the new
college of Florida, a public
four-year school in Sarasota.
She also is the lead plaintiff
in a lawsuit against the state
of Florida that challenges
sb-266.
>> The legislation is saying
that the state has the authority
to dictate what can or cannot be
taught in the classroom in terms
of gender equality, issues of
race and ethnic inequality.
So, they don't allow one to be
teaching about activism.
Judy: So, you have made changes
in what Yo teach as a
result of this?
>> The changes I have made are
primarily in informing the
students that what I am telling
them could be interpreted as
being illegal.
But always with the concern that
I just might be fired at any
point.
Judy: Governor Ron Desantis took
a special interest in the new
college earlier this year.
>> Some of these niche subjects
like critical race theory, other
types of courses and majors,
Florida is getting out of that
game.
Judy: Igniting protests when he
replaced six members of the
board of trustees with
conservative activists who fired
the college president, denied
tenure to professors, and
planned to phase out the gender
studies program.
>> We have lost a lot of
professors.
They have other options.
Similarly, we have staff that
some have been let go.
I am thinking of the Dean of
diversity and inclusion.
Judy: A student of professor
Hernandez is a senior who joined
the lawsuit as a plaintiff.
>> I am an urban studies
student, and we no longer have
any urban studies faculty.
A lot of the urban studies
programming and classes directly
challenge the laws that are
currently in place.
Judy: Gabby Bautista is a senior
who has been organizing students
to protest the changes at new
college.
>> We have been trying to go
with this tagline, your school
is next, because in actuality
that is the real fear, that we
are the canary in the coal mine.
Judy: 40% of the new college
faculty has quit since the
Desantis chosen board of
trustees was installed.
>> It is a very tense
environment.
Judy: For her part, professor
Hernandez has decided to stay
put.
>> I left my country of birth
many years ago.
There was something real in
political oppression.
I am done running.
I feel it is important to stand
and say no.
I believe in the importance of
academic freedom.
And unless somebody stays and
stands for it, we just might
lose it.
Judy: For the pbs newshour, I'm
Judy woodruff in Sarasota,
Florida.
♪♪