First Amendment and College Campuses

Freedom of Speech is a highly important in not only the United States, but on college campuses as well. It is essential that this this first amendment right remains untainted and stands strong in American society. Unfortunately, in today's political and social climate, the first amendment is becoming encroached upon. This violation comes from a growing issue in American society: Political Correctness. While colleges in America have mostly remained grounds for free speech, recent decades have proven a test to these grounds. Most recently in the 21st century, terms such as microaggressions, trigger warnings, and safe spaces have gained traction in the American lexicon resulting in their mainstream spotlight. These, and many other new terms, are putting boundaries on free speech. These terms, when used correctly, are for the protection of people who feel undermined by certain words, terms, and more. This idea of protecting people, or students, from hate speech, or words they do not prefer, is pure at heart. People want to protect others from hateful and negative speech, but this conflicts with the idea of the first amendment itself. As the first amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances". As stated here, no laws can be made to counteract a citizen's right to speak freely.

Even with good intentions, safe zones and speech limits on college campuses do not uphold the foundation created back in the late 18th century. As of currently, an answer to satisfy both sides of the debate has yet to be found. It is very likely an answer to this problem will never be manifested. For now, one can only hope that citizens refrain from utilizing their freedom of speech to legally create hate and negativity while other sides of the debate refrain from setting further restrictions on this first amendment right. This battle of free speech will likely never be settled, it will only be debated further to hopefully create a better awareness of the issue.

Behrent, Michael. “A Tale of Two Arguments about Free Speech on Campus.” AAUP, AAUP, 2019, www.aaup.org/article/tale-two-arguments-about-free-speech-campus#.XXj6RXspBEY.