Essay On Free Speech On College Campuses

The topic of free speech on college campuses currently has been a huge hot button issue in the media, especially in the United States. The controversy this topic brings is deeply rooted in the history of not only higher education, but in the history of the development of this country. Often people are all for freedom of speech, until someone speaks out against them (as a person) or one of their core beliefs. In an effort to give full disclosure here, I believe that I should state that directly after I completed my undergraduate degree I did apply and got into Law School. While I decided not to attend Law School, I do believe that the courses I took on Pre-Law and Constitutional Law had a profound impact on my beliefs.
Before Law School, I had a difficult time excepting when someone would speak out against my own personal core beliefs. It took years of higher education to teach me that people speaking out is a good thing, even if the topic is not something I personally believe in or condone. When you are truly educated on a topic you learn to look at ideas from all different perspectives, this practice will either strengthen your personal beliefs or challenge you to think differently about a topic. This is the essence of critical thinking and to …show more content…
To me both freedom of speech and academic freedom serve the same purpose and necessity, especially on a college campus. If institutions of higher learning are allowed to infringe on the expressed rights of students, faculty, and staff as a nation it is my belief that we have lost all hope in our government, and in the laws that are implemented to serve and protect us. The Bill of Rights was implemented to protect society, institutions of higher learning were also implemented to protect society, if one disregards the other it will be a systemic failure that we will all