We recently posted a result from an in-depth poll we conducted among 1,000 college students last fall. In this poll we asked students about specific speakers they may or may not support coming to their campus. Among our conclusions was that students largely aren’t supportive of very many speakers – particularly individuals who might be considered to be controversial or present ideas some might find uncomfortable.
In this same poll, we asked students about types of speakers that might come to a college campus. We included speaker types we felt most observers would feel are appropriate as well as speaker types that we felt even the most passionate free speech advocates might question. Our goal was to see where “the line” might be for today’s college students. The answer is the line is very high – students largely don’t want campus speakers at all.
The table below shows the percentage of US college students who would support each type of speaker coming to their campus to speak:
| Support | |
| A leader from the Black Lives Matter movement | 50% |
| An advocate for the legalization of marijuana | 46% |
| An elected official with views that are vastly different than yours | 22% |
| A publisher of pornographic videos | 21% |
| An activist who has a different view on abortion than you do | 19% |
| A speaker who strongly opposes the Black Lives matter movement | 19% |
| A politician who is against gay marriage | 17% |
| A speaker who believes that there are racial differences in intelligence | 17% |
| A tobacco company executive | 14% |
| A speaker who is known to have sexually harassed a colleague in the past | 11% |
| Muslim who advocates hatred towards the United States | 10% |
| A speaker who believes that the Holocaust did not happen | 10% |
| A white supremacist | 10% |
Some interesting conclusions can be made by looking at whom students are willing to support coming to their campus to speak:
- Even the most highly supported type of speaker (A leader from the Black Lives Matter movement) is only supported by half (50%) of students. Support for any type of campus speaker is tepid.
- Two types of speakers stood out as having the most support: Leaders from the Black Lives Matter movement and advocates for the legalization of marijuana.
- It is perhaps troubling that only about 1 in 5 students (22%) support an elected official with views different from their own.
- Racially insensitive speakers (white supremacists and Holocaust deniers) are the least supported types of speakers.
We can also look at the same list, but this time sorted by the percentage of students who oppose this type of speaker coming to their campus to speak:
| Oppose | |
| A white supremacist | 68% |
| A speaker who believes that the Holocaust did not happen | 68% |
| A speaker who is known to have sexually harassed a colleague in the past | 67% |
| Muslim who advocates hatred towards the United States | 66% |
| A speaker who believes that there are racial differences in intelligence | 51% |
| A politician who is against gay marriage | 50% |
| A tobacco company executive | 49% |
| A speaker who strongly opposes the Black Lives matter movement | 46% |
| A publisher of pornographic videos | 39% |
| An activist who has a different view on abortion than you do | 27% |
| An elected official with views that are vastly different than yours | 25% |
| An advocate for the legalization of marijuana | 16% |
| A leader from the Black Lives Matter movement | 16% |
Here we see that:
- In general, students are more passionate in their opposition to speaker types than in their support.
- Speakers with racially insensitive views and those known to have sexually harassed someone are the most opposed types of speakers. Speakers who have sexually harassed are opposed just as much as white supremacists.
- About half of students oppose politicians who are against gay marriage and tobacco company executives. This is about the same level of opposition as to a speaker who believes there are racial differences in intelligence.
- About 1 in 4 students would oppose an elected official that has different views than the student.
Because there have been instances of speakers being shouted down and even physically confronted by college students, we posed a question that asked students what they felt were acceptable ways to protest against a campus speaker.
| Which of the following actions would you take if you were strongly opposed to a speaker your college had invited to speak on campus? | |
| Disagree with the speaker during a question-and-answer period | 25% |
| Organize a boycott of the speech | 22% |
| Stage a protest outside of the building where the speech is taking place | 21% |
| Host a concurrent speech from a speaker with an opposing view | 16% |
| Stage a sit-in at an administrative building | 12% |
| Physically confront the speaker | 8% |
| Disrupt the speech while it is going on | 7% |
For the most part, students don’t support any actions if they strongly oppose a campus speaker. While it is encouraging to see that they do not support disrupting the speech or physically confronting a speaker, it is perhaps just as disheartening to see that only 1 in 4 would be willing to disagree with the speaker during a Q&A period. So, not only do students not want most types of speakers, they aren’t willing to step up and do something if a speaker they find controversial does come to campus.
Just as we found when we looked at specific speakers, students seem to be shying away from not just controversial speakers, but also those that might make some portion of the student body uncomfortable. Based on these results, we predict that there will be fewer speakers invited to college campuses in the future and that attendance at these events will decline.
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