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A report published in mid-March found that more than 600 college students and groups were punished or investigated by school administrators for “constitutionally protected expression” over the last five years.
The study was conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, and analyzed efforts to censor students in public universities who engage in various levels of “expressive activity” protected by the First Amendment. The organization found 1,014 students and student groups were targeted or the recipients of punishment by the school administration or some type of student government for exercising their protected speech between 2020 and 2024, according to the Fire.
Some 63% of the students and groups targeted ended up receiving some type of administrative punishment.
The Worst Punishments?
Some of the worst punishments included some 317 students and groups who were directly censored, 72 who were suspended, 55 who “separated from the institution or its funding,” and a further 19 who “were unenrolled under ambiguous circumstances.”
The three most targeted groups were Students for Justice in Palestine (75 incidents), Turning Point USA (65 incidents), and the College Republicans (58 incidents), which suggests that it’s actually the right-leaning students who are more likely to be punished overall than left-leaning. Attacks on free speech did however span a wealth of ideologies.
One student was suspended after emailing students a short survey about his school’s — Northern Michigan University — mental health resources shortly after a student suicide in April 2022. “After Dotson sent his survey on April 6, NMU sent police to his campus door, charged him with multiple disciplinary violations, cut off his email access, and banned him from ‘all other university activities or privileges for which the student might otherwise be eligible,’” wrote The Fire.
‘Unacceptable’ Behaviors From Schools
“This is unacceptable coming from people whose job it is to serve college students and ensure that their rights are protected,” said FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens. “Their job should be to protect students’ free speech rights, not torpedo them.”
Students at public institutions should contact FIRE if they face punishment for their expression by submitting a case.
“Every instance of censorship threatens students’ ability to engage in a free exchange of ideas,” FIRE Senior Researcher Logan Dougherty said in a statement. “Open minds and free debate, not self-censorship and punishment, must be the standard across our nation’s campuses.”
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