An overwhelming majority of self-described liberal students believe that students and professors who make offensive comments should be reported to university officials, a survey released in June shows.
A national survey of undergraduate students conducted by the Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth in April included 400,000 students from more than 1,000 different colleges in all 50 states.
New survey of college students.
Good news:
76% think profs create open climate for sharing opinions.Bad news:
69% (85% of liberals) think profs should be reported for offensive comment.60% (76% of libs) think fellow students should be reported for offensive comment.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/NupeeoO9fC
— Free Black Thought (@FreeBlckThought) June 23, 2021
Although a majority of students indicated in the survey that their campuses promoted a climate that allowed diverse views to be shared and included in assignments, the survey showed significant disparities between self-described conservative and liberal students.
Sixty-nine percent of students said they believe a professor should be reported to the university if the professor says something offensive, while 31% responded that the professor should not be reported.
When the survey categorized respondents by political ideology, it showed that 85% of liberal students believe a professor should be reported for saying something other students found offensive, compared to 41% of conservative students. Fifty-nine percent of conservative students said the professor should not be reported for offending students, versus 15% of liberal students.
Conservative students who responded to the survey were even less supportive of students being reported to the university for saying something other students found offensive, as were liberal students: 76% of liberal students responded that a student should be reported to the university for saying something other students found offensive, while 31% of conservative students responded that students should be reported in this scenario.
Sixty-nine percent of conservative students said the student who offended other students should not be reported, while 24% of liberal students responded similarly.
Significant disparities between liberal and conservative students were also present in other survey questions, such as one that asked if professors created a “classroom climate in which people with diverse views would feel comfortable sharing their opinions.”
While 86% of liberal students responded that professors did create a climate that made sharing diverse views comfortable, 56% of conservative students responded “yes.” Forty-four percent of conservative students responded that professors did not create a comfortable classroom climate for sharing diverse views, compared to 14% of liberal students.
Numerous colleges have cracked down on “hate speech” or offensive speech on campuses, or indicated that some speech is not welcome. Brandeis University in Massachusetts has provided its students with a list of unacceptable “oppressive” words that may cause offense and should be replaced with their suggested recommendations. “Trigger warning,” a term that is commonly used on college campuses as a “content note” or warning before potentially distressing material, was on the list because it is “connected to violence.” (RELATED: University Labels ‘Trigger Warning,’ ‘Rule Of Thumb’ As Violent And ‘Oppressive Language’)
Ostensibly anodyne words were also included on the list, such as the word “picnic.” The word “picnic” is oppressive because it is “often associated with lynchings of Black people in the United States.”
