Ipsos survey reveals 65% of students believe they cannot speak openly for fear of retribution

Mesa, AZ – Once considered the breeding ground for exploration and discovery of new concepts and ideas, Citizens for Free Speech (CFFS) has learned that America’s college campuses have devolved in recent years into prison camps of intolerance and suppression.

According to a new Knight Foundation/Ipsos survey of college students, 65% of the respondents believe that people on their campuses are routinely prevented from speaking freely. Ipsos questioned over 1,000 college students ranging from 18-year-old freshmen to 24-year-old graduate students, along with over 4,000 adults, and found that a significant majority feel too intimidated to express views that may be considered as dissenting from the prevailing narrative.

“It’s terrible to have to admit this, but this news is hardly surprising,” remarked CFFS Executive Director Patrick Wood. “The plan to indoctrinate young minds with certain ideological viewpoints has been in motion for some time. Part of the agenda is for professors to fill their heads with progressive concepts and forcing them to regurgitate the information in exchange for high grades, and the other part is to suppress any opposing views they may have outside the classroom through intimidation and ostracization.”

The survey also revealed that nearly 6 in 10 students believe the schools they attend should be open to all ideas and speech—including speech that may be considered offensive or negative. Yet under 50% of them believe that those rights are protected on campus.

The ideological breakdown of students who felt suppressed or censored comes as no surprise, given academia’s extraordinary left-wing bent. The percentage of students identifying as conservative and Republican who believe their free speech is protected fell to 27% from 52% just two years ago. The same feeling among independents dropped from 59% to 46%. However, when it comes to students who count themselves as Democrats, a strong majority believe their free speech rights to be secure.

To CFFS Director Wood, the inference is obvious.

“The relentless assault on free speech in higher education is not accidental, nor is it organic. It is calculated,” he explained. “College administrators, trustees, deans and professors have long advanced progressive beliefs, and to ensure that future generations of leaders share those views, they have to make life just a bit more uncomfortable for those who dissent.

“Independent-minded and conservative students are told to watch their microaggressions, mind their pronouns, and check their privilege in all they say or do, which often makes them afraid to speak at all. That is not what the college experience is supposed to be about. All students should be free to speak their minds, on campus and off, and that is the mission of CFFS—to protect the First Amendment rights of all Americans.”

Wood also indicated that big moves are coming for the free speech advocacy group in 2022.

“In the coming year, we intend to expand our membership exponentially nationwide, while becoming even more active with chapters in all 50 states. And if American colleges and universities continue to suppress the voices of our future leaders in the interest of ideology, the next chapters we begin might just be on the campuses themselves.”

For more information about CFFS please visit www.CitizensForFreeSpeech.org.

Contact:

Bob Frantz
National Director of Communications
[email protected]