1 in 3 College Students Say Violence in a Campus Protest Can Be Acceptable, Survey Finds
Thirty-two percent of college students believe it can be acceptable in at least some circumstances to use violence to stop a campus speech, according to a newly released survey of over 50,000 college students from 258 universities. The survey, conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment group, is the fifth released by the organization.
FIRE’s survey polled students on a range of questions about their attitudes toward free expression and the general climate at their universities. FIRE also ranked schools based on student reports, as well as their formal speech policies and their administration’s history of speech-stifling actions.Â
The public University of Virginia (UVA) took the top spot this year, while Harvard—for the second year in a row—came in last place. However, FIRE’s ranking process is complex. UVA, for example, came in first place primarily due to consistent administrative support for free speech. But when looking at subcategories that cover student opinion, UVA ranked 200th for support for disruptive conduct and 112th for self-censorship.
“The student body overturns a certain amount every year. Presumably every four or five years it’s an entirely new student body,” says Sean Stevens, FIRE’s chief research adviser. “But the administrative culture, kind of the culture established there can stick for longer.”
The survey also found sharp increases in students’ support for disruptive or violent protest activities. Thirty-seven percent of students said it was “sometimes” or “always” acceptable to shout down a campus speaker, up from 31 percent last year. In all, less than 1 in 3 students said that it would “never” be acceptable to shout down a speaker.
The percentage of students agreeing that it was never acceptable
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