The debate about free speech on college campuses has become a favorite of conservative political commentators, so much so that some in America could be fooled into believing there is a “free speech crisis” on college campuses.
That is a false narrative, at least in the way it’s typically construed — that conservative speech and speakers are being driven off campuses and are not tolerated by liberal college students and faculty.
National polls consistently show that college students overwhelmingly — 70 to 78 percent — favor an open learning environment, including divergent or even offensive views. Typically students are more ive of an open environment than the general American public is, polls show.
In 2018 FIRE, a civil liberties watchdog group that focuses on academia, found only 11 instances of speakers being disinvited from events at the nation’s more than 4,500 colleges and universities that year.
That being said, there is a different free speech issue threatening college students — one that University of California San Diego students and faculty drew attention to this week.
On Wednesday UCSD’s International House hosted a virtual discussion called “Campus Free Speech in the Shadow of Foreign Governments: China/Hong Kong and Israel/Palestine.” During the event students and faculty reflected on the censorship and harassment they’ve faced while discussing international issues, including concerns about foreign governments’ policies discouraging international students from speaking about issues and participating in rallies or protests while in the United States.
Half the discussion focused on the conflict between mainland China and Hong Kong and the ramifications of a national security law ed by the Chinese government last year that directly targets protestors in Hong Kong and with a broad scope threatens to punish anyone authorities say is engaging in an acts of secession, separatism, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.
Kwai Ng, a sociology professor at UCSD and former journalist in Hong Kong, and Victor Shih, Ho Miu Lam Chair in China and Pacific Relations and associate professor of political science at UCSD, explained how the law has a global reach and has already been used to arrest hundreds of people engaging in peaceful protest and owners of newspapers. It also has curtailed teachers’ discussions about liberal values at odds with the Chinese government.
Students from the UCSD Hong Kong Cultural Society said the international of their group fear the law could target them when they return home.
“The reason we’re concerned is it applies to anyone anywhere in the world,” one of the unidentified student said. “Because we do not know if what we do or say will violate the law, I think we have a constant fear that we will be violating the law by promoting freedom.”
Students also mentioned reports about paid informants and cameras in classrooms at Chinese universities to inform the Communist party, and some former Hong Kong government officials have worried about that happening at other universities outside of China.
The other half of the event focused on Israel and Palestine and highlighted some ways Israel’s government has sought to suppress criticism of its behavior on U.S. college campuses.
Gary Fields, a professor in UCSD’s Department of Communications, and James Rauch, a professor in the Department of Economics, talked about efforts by the Israeli government and nongovernment actors to reframe the definition of anti-Semitism, conflating any criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism.
Fields said that creates a climate of fear for those seeking to teach about the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
For instance, Fields said, in 2018 UCSD received a complaint about one of his lectures, though the complaint did not originate from a student. Ultimately the university investigated, found no wrongdoing and stood by the course, Fields said, but he felt harassed for simply teaching.
Fields and students also said Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs and some d non-government groups — Canary Mission and Reservists on Duty — are promoting blacklist websites that identify students, faculty and activists as racist and anti-Semitic. Listings on those sites can be used to deny people entry to Israel or Palestinian territories and prevent people from getting jobs, they said.
A member of Students for Justice in Palestine UCSD said students have been slandered on such sites, adding that Reservists on Duty, an Israel-based NGO, sent someone to one of the group’s 2019 events in San Diego. The person pretended to be a Pro-Palestine activist in an attempt to bait students into saying something offensive, the student said.
“All of this comes together to create an atmosphere of fear among student activists … and it leaves many people reluctant to engage in activism at all because they don’t feel protected,” the student said.
Regardless of what side you’re on, when it comes to these conflicts we all should be alarmed to hear students are being targeted and living in fear because foreign governments are trying to restrict or manipulate conversations on U.S. college campuses.
If there’s one thing all Americans seem to hold tightly to it’s the belief in freedom of speech. When you combine that with the fact that colleges are supposed to be a place where students are exposed to a variety of ideas, this should put us all on edge.
I hope that when these international students advocate for U.S. colleges to protect and their free speech, a great many of us stand with them as allies and champion their First Amendment rights with the same enthusiasm we bring to championing our own.
