Free Speech Is Flunking Out On College Campuses Summary

“Women, sexual assault victims, people of color, transgender students. College campuses have created “safe spaces” for all sorts of marginalized groups. But in the process, one member of the campus community has lost precious real estate. Free speech” (1). This quote from the article “Free Speech is Flunking Out on College Campuses” by Catherine Rampell introduces the idea that the right to freedom of speech is being squashed. All over the country, colleges are taking away this right from their students in order to protect others, but in reality, they are only stripping them of what is protected under the Constitution. Censorship has spread to social media apps causing students to be in constant danger of being accused of harassment. Claims
continues to explain that Texas Tech bans students to a freedom of speech zone which is only a gazebo that can hold no more than forty people. If a student would like to engage in any type of freedom of speech activities outside of this zone, then they must have approval six days before the activity (504). The fact that students are not permitted to speak their mind freely outside of the gazebo without permission is saddening. Higher authorities are limiting the thoughts of not only students, but also all people because of the fear that they will insult someone or they will speak out against their rules. Freedom of speech should not be limited to a certain zone with only a certain amount of students to hear it because the founding fathers did not intend for it be like this. They came from a country where they were not permitted to have their own opinion; therefore, they wanted the United States to allow freedom of speech whenever and wherever. Limiting speech is limiting diversity, knowledge, and opinion; moreover, censorship is not allowing the country to grow. Rampell continues to state “Crippling the delivery of unpopular views is a terrible lesson to send to impressionable minds and future leaders at Wesleyan and