Hundreds of college students, groups targeted for speech in last 5 years: watchdog
More than 600 college students and student groups have been punished or investigated by school administrators for "constitutionally protected expression" in the last half a decade, according to a nonpartisan advocacy organization.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released the report "Shifting Winds: Students Under Fire" on Thursday, finding that 63% of over 1,000 efforts by administrators, student groups or student governments to suppress student speech led to "administrative investigation or punishment."
The report, purporting to be the "most detailed collection of speech-related campus controversies involving students to date," analyzes efforts to censor students at public universities who engage in "expressive activity" that the group contends is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The document coincides with an interactive online database.
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"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."
Regardless of whether speech was considered conservative or liberal, FIRE found that censorship spans political ideologies. About 476 entries in the database were reportedly targeted or punished for expression from their political left, while about 337 entries of expression were targeted or probed from their political right.
Two of the most dominant "incendiary topics on campus" that led to actions against protected speech in the last five years involve expressions on race after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the eruption of the war in Gaza that began in 2023.
"When it comes to speech about race, most students are targeted from their left, while students speaking out about the war in Gaza are more likely to be targeted from their right," a FIRE overview states.
The data shows the most targeted student groups nationwide are Students for Justice in Palestine (75 incidents), Turning Point USA (65 incidents) and the College Republicans (58 incidents).
FIRE also found a sharp uptick in cases being initiated by university administrators as opposed to students, largely a result of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against civilians in southern Israel that sparked Israel's ongoing military offensive in Gaza that has led to many protests and demonstrations against Israel on college campuses.
Acknowledging that some pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations have been plagued by violence and vandalism, including demonstrators taking over a building on the campus of Columbia University in New York City, FIRE believes such incidents have led to an "administrative overreaction to avoid either a Title VI lawsuit or Department of Education investigation."
While Students for Justice in Palestine was said to face the most speech incidents, it received much scrutiny for numerous controversies, as some of its campus chapters voiced support for the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that killed over 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. The University of Virginia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine declared the attack "a step toward a free Palestine."
The FIRE report cites a "toolkit" distributed by Students for Justice in Palestine that referred to the Oct. 7 attacks as a "historic win for the Palestinian resistance" and offered suggested "talking points" to campus chapters.
"One of those talking points read: '[W]e as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,'" the report reads.
The Muslim Student Association at CUNY-Queen's College faced an investigation from school administrators with the possibility for disciplinary action after it posted on Instagram mocking the validity of reports that Hamas killed babies on Oct. 7 after mental health professionals accused the group of inciting hatred and urged the school to impose punishment.
At the University of Florida in 2024, student Parker Hovis was arrested and suspended for three years after he failed to immediately comply with police orders to disperse during a peaceful on-campus pro-Palestinian protest.
At Harvard University in 2024, about a dozen students who participated in a silent protest organized by Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine had their library access suspended for two weeks.
Prior to October 2023, the most frequently targeted student groups were conservative groups, including College Republicans, Turning Point USA or Young Americans for Freedom, the report finds.
One 2024 case cited in the "Students Under Fire" database includes the case of Pace University student Houston Porter, a member of the campus chapter of The Federalist Society. He faced an investigation after co-moderating a panel discussion about a ballot measure that would have codified gender identity and gender expression into the New York state constitution. Although the event was disrupted, Porter was notified nine days later that he was being investigated for "sex-based harassment" after a complaint by a trans-identified classmate.
At George Mason University in Virginia, two students were issued no-contact orders after expressing concerns in a private group chat about adding feminine hygiene products to male restrooms. The students sued, which led to a settlement in which the university agreed to lift the no-contact orders and award each student $15,000.
In 2024, Matan Goldstein, a Jewish student at the University of Virginia, faced an investigation after he told a newspaper that he was assaulted during an anti-Israel protest on campus.
Last year, the Columbia Law School Student Senate denied official recognition to the group Law Students Against Antisemitism on the grounds that the group adopted the "International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of anti-semitism," which critics accuse of being too broad. The group was approved after a revote was held.
At the University of Kansas, Students for Justice in Palestine played a role in targeting and calling for the cancellation of an event featuring an Oct. 7 survivor co-hosted by Students Supporting Israel. Although the event was permitted to continue as planned, SPJ disrupted the event.
At the Berklee College of Music in New York City, administrators postponed an event organized by a detransitioner named Amaya Price, who planned to host an event for a class project titled "Born in the Right Body: Desister and Detransitioner Awareness." Price was sent threatening messages, while other students launched a petition demanding the event be canceled because it would "harm the mental well-being of individuals in the transgender community."
