The Real Chill on Campus
The debate about the state of free speech on American college campuses is deeply polarized. On one side, some commentators caricature students as “snowflakes” in search of a “safe space” from which they can “cancel” their own classmates. On the other side are those who claim that the students’ supposed aversion to discussing controversial topics is a chimera invented by Fox News or insist that those who demand the right to express disapproved views have fallen foul of a healthy “consequence culture.”
As someone who has taught hundreds of students and given dozens of guest lectures over the past decade, I know that the reality is more complicated. In my experience of teaching, including at Harvard and Johns Hopkins, the overwhelming majority of students are receptive to real discussion, even about sensitive issues. On days when I had assigned readings on particularly controversial questions, such as structural racism and cultural appropriation, I was certainly apprehensive when I walked into the classroom. But nearly every time, my students impressed me by how open they were to hearing one another out, and how fairly they
