Free Speech Surveys Hit Roadblocks at Universities
The Chronicle reports on two separate incidents—one at the University of Wisconsin, the other at public colleges in Florida— in which campus free speech and viewpoint diversity surveys have been contested or refused due to the political nature of such inquiry.
In Florida, “a union representing faculty called for instructors, staff, and students to simply ignore [the voluntary survey]…among other things [the survey] asks how welcome free expressions of ideas, opinions, and beliefs are on campus.” Despite the survey being voluntary, “the United Faculty of Florida called the the survey an infringement on the right to free speech, freedom of association, and the basic right to privacy.”
Last year, the Republican Legislature passed a bill “requiring all public colleges to distribute an annual survey of political beliefs in order to 'assess the status of intellectual and viewpoint diversity’ on campuses across the state.”
A federal judge denied an emergency request to stop the survey.
See: Florida’s Colleges Must Administer ‘Viewpoint Diversity’ Survey. Don’t Take It, Faculty Union Says.
In Wisconsin, a privately-funded, non-partisan group with conservative ties sought to conduct a similar survey on University of Wisconsin’s 13 campuses. The chancellor, after objecting to the survey, resigned. The University of Wisconsin’s own review boards had approved the survey.
“The conflict over the survey in Wisconsin, which comes on the heels of a similar, and more controversial, effort on the same topic in Florida, highlights the increasingly fraught politics surrounding free-speech issues in public higher education…”
“The survey itself discusses ‘politically charged’ topics…such as viewpoint diversity and whether students have felt pressured by professors to agree with a specific political or ideological opinion discussed in class.”
See: A Free-Speech Survey in Wisconsin Sparked Concerns. So a Chancellor Quit.
