Students lose when we limit controversial discussions on campus.
More and more, students are actively choosing to conceal their real political beliefs in the university classroom, leaving students to wonder, what’s the purpose of their degree if not for challenging their thoughts and perceptions.
A staggering number of students across Canada participate in self-censorship on university campuses. According to the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, nearly 50 per cent of university students across Canada, and nearly 85 per cent of students who identify as very conservative, expressed reluctance to reveal their opinions on controversial political issues, with fear of being penalized with lower grades.
However, when speaking on non-controversial issues, 93.4 per cent of university students feel comfortable speaking up.
There’s no real value in a university education if it doesn’t challenge our thoughts and preconceptions about contentious topics in the world around us.
While right-wing students typically have more reservations about sharing their perspectives on controversial political issues, the problem transcends party lines, with 47 per cent of left-wing students reporting that they’re concerned about expressing their views on campus, fearing they could be deemed offensive.
These statistics highlight that Canadian university students are suffering from self-censorship. When students aren’t given the space to share and challenge their perspectives, universities become a place of censorship rather than higher knowledge.
Unease doesn’t end with students; professors are feeling the pressure too. 44 per cent of right-leaning professors express concern about their political values being known and would worry that they would face negative consequences if colleges, students or others on campus learned their political opinions.
The climate of self-censorship created in the classroom with both students and faculty raises larger concerns about what intellectual thoughts are being cultivated at universities. When we foster confirmation bias in a learning environment, we risk hindering the intellectual development of students who will one day be the leaders in our society, creating a polarizing and less tolerant environment.
Universities across the country can no longer sit idly as students stifle their opinions, while claiming to be transformative, educational institutions. Students are leaving campus with a degree and perfect grades, but never learning to defend an argument or their personal values, failing to prepare them for a world of disagreement.
Universities should be working to bring more partisan speakers from diverse political backgrounds to campus, as well as educating Teaching Assistants on how to accommodate different perspectives and create a welcoming environment.
Canadian students deserve concrete action from university leaders to address increased self-censorship on campus. Otherwise, they risk suppressing a diversity of perspectives—because a university without disagreement isn’t a university, but an echo-chamber.
Lauren is a third-year politics student and one of The Journal’s Features Editors
Tags
Campus, Censorship, free speech, University
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Zedrick Serson
> 44 per cent of right-leaning professors express concern about their political values being known and would worry that they would face negative consequences if colleges, students or others on campus learned their political opinions.
(Spoiler: The “political opinions” they’re talking about are “trans people are subhuman.” $8/year to platform more right-wing victim complexes, what a productive use of student money.)
Daniel Kolber
Ya, Zedrick, only lefties can have victim complexes…..after 10+ yrs of woke/lefty government ruining Canada, that’s the best you can come up with? And who’s the problem here??
Sal Baglieri
Universities are places to learn and work together, to create and improve. A student as better way to learn from others (PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS) alike ,
not a place where students and faculty teachers have to think twice before expressing their opinions or concerns without being told, be careful what you say or you’re not politically correct
political correctness really bothers me because if a person cannot express what he really thinks or believes then we have a real problem. Freedom of expression it’s a fundamental right. Don’t listen to this politicians in today’s world. The reason why they want to be politically correct it’s not because they wanna make a better world for us, it’s because they don’t want their illusions to be distorted.
Remember, one thing world was world is and world will be. The world keeps turning no matter what it’s been doing this for billions of years. remember students that your integrity is at risk and
if you lose your integrity, you have nothing to look forward.
Marsha P. Johnson
Please confirm, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the aforementioned “political opinions” are all 100% equivalent to “trans people are subhuman”.
I’ll wait for your detailed analysis. At the very least, please provide the names of the professors, their respective institution, and live video confirmation from these individuals stating that “trans people are
subhuman”. Also, the backdrop of such evidence should be analyzed as a % of the entire number of professors across the country that teach at all post-secondary educational institutions.