Axios Event: Leaders in government and academia talk difficulty navigating student free speech and safety concerns

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Student protests relating to current events such as the Israel-Hamas war have thrust university leaders into the spotlight in recent months as they try to balance concerns about student safety with fundamental free speech protections.

• Axios 1 big thing host and editor Niala Boodhoo and senior reporter Erica Pandey moderated conversations with University of Virginia School of Law lecturer Timothy Heaphy, Yale Law School professor Keith E. Whittington, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Department of Education assistant secretary for civil rights Catherine E. Lhamon at the event, which was sponsored by Knight Foundation.

Why it matters: It has been a difficult time for universities in navigating pushback around free speech protection and student safety concerns, with leaders trying to figure out how to respond to both internal pressures from students, parents and faculty and external pressures from donors, politicians and the media.

What they're saying: "It's fundamentally sometimes difficult for universities or governments to fulfill their core constitutional obligation to protect free speech, but also to keep people safe," Heaphy said.

• "Public forums like university campuses have to accommodate all kinds of offensive speech, and offensive speech generates strong emotion and often leads to conflict," he continued.

Whittington said that it's a "relatively new phenomenon" for there to be pressures from inside a university to shut down speech in various ways, noting that universities were traditionally places that were advocating for more instances of free speech to occur on campus.

• "That's not so true anymore," he added.

The amount of cases relating to discrimination in schools has risen, with Lhamon saying she's seen an "enormous increase" in cases investigating said discrimination, especially in the time since October 7th.

• "I also think that there is astonishing misconception that there is some kind of contrast or divide between protecting, respecting free speech rights and not discriminating," Lhamon said.
• "There is no necessary conflict between respecting and protecting our fundamental free speech right, and protecting every student's right to be in school, to learn in an environment where the student isn't discriminated against because of who the student is," she continued.

A new era of social media further complicates the landscape for the digital exchange of diverse ideas, ushering in new conversations about who is responsible for monitoring speech online.

• "I do think there's a growing trend, even among government leaders, to creep into this space with justification to put pressure on these platforms, because a lot of these discussions have transformed from the traditional public square, to the online town square," Schmitt said.

Sponsored content:

In a View From the Top sponsored segment, Knight Foundation vice president of learning and impact Ashley Zohn explained the results of a study the foundation put out with Ipsos measuring student attitudes toward free expression over the last 8 years. In 2016, 73% of students believed that free speech is secure, compared with 43% today.

• "The most important one [trend] is that since 2016, we've seen a dramatic decline in the percentage of students who feel like free speech is secure in America today," Zohn said.
• At the same time, Zohn said that "students value their speech," noting that 90% of student respondents said free speech is important to them.