c/campus-speech-wars

Spent $300 on a campus event speaker fee and it basically funded a shouting match

Our student group brought in a professor from another school to talk about media bias. We thought it would be a balanced discussion. The fee was $300, which we pulled from our activity budget. The event just turned into people yelling over each other for an hour. The speaker couldn't even finish a sentence. Now our budget is short and I feel like we just paid for a therapy session for the angriest people on campus. Does anyone have a better system for vetting speakers or setting ground rules that actually work?

My professor told me to ignore the protestors, that they'd just be loud and move on

This was last semester during that big speaker event at our school. My poli sci professor, Dr. Evans, said the protestors blocking the doors were just for show and to walk right past them. I tried it, and it turned into a huge shouting match, security got called, and I missed the first half of the talk. He was totally wrong. It wasn't just noise; it was a planned disruption that actually worked. Has anyone else had campus staff give advice that completely misread a protest situation?

My friend got a 30 day ban from the campus forum for a comment about a local protest, and the reason given was 'inciting violence'

My professor gave us the choice to either present our final project or write a 20-page paper, and I chose the presentation to avoid a confrontation about my topic's sources.

Has anyone else picked the 'safer' academic option lately just to dodge a potential protest or complaint?

Unpopular opinion: The 'heckler's veto' is killing real debate at my school

I saw a guest speaker get shouted down at UC Berkeley last month for having a view people didn't like. The crowd called it a protest, but it was just stopping everyone else from hearing him. This matters because now the administration just cancels events if they think there will be a loud reaction, which means we never get to argue with ideas we disagree with. Has your campus started doing this too, where a few loud people decide what gets said for everyone?

Remembering the old free speech wall at State U and how quiet it is now

Back in 2015, the big brick wall by the library was always covered in sticky notes and chalk, people arguing about everything. I walked by it yesterday and there was just one faded poster for a club bake sale. The admin moved all 'disruptive' speech to a tiny fenced area last fall after a protest about a speaker got loud. It feels like the whole debate just got packed up and put away. Has your campus seen something similar, where they just sort of shut the whole conversation down?

The week they canceled the debate on Middle East policy at my school

Last Tuesday, the student government at UC Berkeley pulled the plug on a planned debate between two professors with different views on the conflict, saying it might cause 'harm'. I think that's wrong. We need to hear tough arguments, not hide from them. Has your campus shut down an event lately for similar reasons?

Walked past the campus free speech zone and saw a sign war over a bake sale

I was visiting my old college in Eugene yesterday and cut through the designated protest area. Two groups had tables set up maybe ten feet apart. One was selling cookies for a dollar to fund a lecture series, the other had a huge sign saying 'Your sugar supports hate speech' because of the speaker they invited last year. The funny part was, people were buying cookies from the first table and then immediately walking over to donate the change to the second group. It felt like watching a very polite, baked-goods-based standoff. Has anyone else seen a protest where the actual conflict got this weirdly specific?

Changed my view on heckling after a protest at my old school

I was at a talk about campus funding at UC Berkeley about six months ago. The speaker was from a group I really disagree with, and I went ready to shout them down. But then a student in front of me just stood up and asked a super pointed question, quoting a line from the speaker's own book. The speaker got totally flustered and couldn't answer well. It was way more effective than any chant. I realized shutting people up just makes them a victim, but using their own words against them actually wins the argument. That moment flipped my whole thinking on protests. Has anyone else seen a question stop a speaker dead like that?

A student told me my 'both sides' framing on a protest handout was actually flattening the issue, so I rewrote it to center the specific demands of the group being protested.

Has anyone else had a similar experience where a critique about language made you completely rethink how you present a campus conflict?

I used to think shouting down a speaker was a valid protest, but a talk at my school changed my mind.

Last semester, a professor from another state was invited to give a talk on immigration policy. His views are pretty conservative, and a big group of students planned to protest by blocking the doors and chanting to shut it down. I was totally on board with that plan. But then, my history professor, Dr. Chen, said something in class that stuck with me. She asked, 'How do you know you're right if you never hear the other side?' That made me pause. I decided to go to the talk instead of the protest. It was tense, and I disagreed with a lot of what he said, but I also heard his actual arguments, not just the sound bites. I even asked a question during the Q&A. It didn't change my views, but it made my disagreement smarter. Now I think letting the talk happen and then challenging the ideas is stronger. Has anyone else gone from wanting to cancel a talk to wanting to debate it instead?

Found an old campus newspaper from 2005 in my attic and the letters section was wild

I was cleaning out some boxes and found my old student paper from my first year at State U. The whole letters page was just students going back and forth about a professor who said something controversial in a lecture. The thing that got me was the editor's note saying they printed every single letter they got that week, over thirty of them. I checked the current paper's site online and their policy now says they reserve the right to edit for 'clarity and civility.' Makes you think about how the rules for the fight have changed. Anyone else come across something like that from back in the day?

Unpopular opinion: I used to think heckling was just part of the deal at campus talks

Last month at a lecture in Ann Arbor, a speaker got shouted down for a full 15 minutes before security did anything, and the whole point of the event was lost. I realized that kind of disruption doesn't promote debate, it just shuts it down completely. Has anyone else seen a protest cross the line from expression into actually preventing speech?

Just saw a poll that 72% of students at my school think shouting down a speaker is okay. That number actually shocked me.

The Stanford sit-in versus the Chicago letter, and why one actually works

Look at the protest at Stanford Law last year where students shouted down a federal judge, compared to the University of Chicago's policy of not canceling invited speakers. The Stanford thing was a mess that just made the protestors look bad and got national media calling them bullies. Chicago's approach, where they let the talk happen but allow counter-events, actually forces ideas to compete. After the Stanford incident, donations dipped and the dean had to issue a public apology. The Chicago method has been in place since 2014 and their reputation for free debate only gets stronger. Which tactic do you think actually wins more support from regular people who aren't on campus?

Appreciation post: I finally got through a tough talk at my school without yelling

Six months ago, I would have walked out of a talk like the one we had last week about the new protest rules. I used to get so mad, my face would turn red and I would just shout. This time, I wrote down three points I wanted to make and waited my turn. I even used a quote from the speaker's own book to make my point. It felt like a small win to be heard instead of just being loud. Has anyone else found a way to keep cool during these campus fights?

A student at UC Berkeley pointed out my protest sign was factually wrong

I was holding a sign about endowment figures during a sit-in last month, and a poli-sci major showed me the actual financial report. The number I had was from a three year old article. I switched to just holding a blank board after that, which felt weirdly more effective. Anyone else get called out on their facts mid-protest?

Just realized our campus paper's 'fact-check' op-eds were getting pulled. Tried submitting mine as a formal letter to the editor instead. It ran unchanged.

Happened at my state school in Ohio. The editorial board has been killing conservative-leaning opinion pieces under their new 'misinformation policy'. My piece was about the stats behind a recent protest's disruption claims. Got rejected twice. So I used the exact same text, but formatted it as a 'Letter to the Editor' and sent it to the generic submissions inbox. No byline, just my name and year. They printed it verbatim in the next issue. Seems like the student editors weren't applying the same scrutiny to that section. Anyone else found a workaround like this when the opinion gatekeepers get heavy-handed?

Hot take: Our school's 'pre-approved protest zones' versus the open quad last semester

The zones just made everything feel staged and fake, but the real talk happened when people just set up a mic in the open. Anyone else's campus try to box in where you can speak?

Pro tip: I found a way to actually talk to the protesters blocking the library doors last semester.

Everyone said to just wait them out or call campus security, but I walked up and asked one student, 'What's the one thing you want people walking by to understand?' It shifted the conversation from a shouting match to an actual point. Has anyone else tried asking a direct, simple question to de-escalate a campus protest?

Heard a freshman say 'free speech is just for the people you agree with' in the library

It was during a debate about that canceled lecture series at Michigan State. I realized a lot of the shouting isn't about principles, it's about who gets to decide which speech is 'valid' in the first place. Has anyone else noticed this shift in how students define the term?

Watched a speaker get shouted down at my college, then saw the same thing happen online a week later

It was a visiting professor talking about election security at our student union. A group just kept yelling over him until he left. Then I saw a video from a different school where protestors did the exact same thing to a student group tabling. Feels like the playbook for shutting down speech is getting copied everywhere now, you know?

Question about the protest at my school's library last Tuesday

I finally understood why my friend got kicked out of that protest at UCLA

He showed me the video where he grabbed a speaker's mic, and I saw it wasn't about his message but how he shut down the whole event. Anyone else have a moment where they saw a protest tactic cross a line?

I thought the 'free speech zones' at my school were just a rumor until I tried to hand out flyers.

Last semester, I wanted to gather signatures for a petition about library hours on the main quad. A campus officer approached me and said I had to move to a designated concrete area behind the science building. I checked the student handbook, and sure enough, it's a real policy on page 47. It completely kills spontaneous discussion where students actually gather. Has your campus tried to push people into these zones too?