Study Finds Wealthier Colleges are Worst Free Speech Offenders
“The pattern is clear”
Campus Reform recently highlighted the findings of this study. It seems the more money a college has, the more likely they are to squelch free speech.
Take a look:
REPORT: Wealthiest colleges are worst free speech offenders
A new study has found that the colleges most prone to disinviting conservative speakers and stifling open debate also have higher tuition and wealthier students than average.
“The average enrollee at a college where students have attempted to restrict free speech comes from a family with an annual income $32,000 higher than that of the average student in America,” declares Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard V. Reeves in an op-ed for Real Clear Markets titled “Illiberal arts colleges: Pay more, get less (free speech),” which he co-authored with his research assistant, Dimitrios Halikias.
“The pattern is clear: the more economically exclusive the institution, the more likely the students have attempted to hinder free speech,” the report states, pointing out that a vast majority of the 90+ cases of disinvitations since 2014 have occurred at institutions with larger-than-average shares of students with household incomes in the top 20 percent.
Most recently, Charles Murray, described in the report as “a distinguished if often controversial social scientist,” was prevented from speaking at Middlebury College when he was repeatedly shouted down and eventually violently confronted by a mob of protesters.
Reeves told Campus Reform that the Middlebury incident inspired him to investigate the topic further, explaining that with the help of the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education’s database of disinvitation attempts, he discovered that Middlebury is actually home to some of “the richest and most privileged” students in America, with the average enrollee coming from a household with an annual income of at least $250,000.
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Comments
In other words, the more privileged their backgrounds, the more arrogant and tyrannical their attitudes. Or elites breed elitists.
If a kid was raised demanding and getting everything he wanted, and if the household staff treated him with undeserved respect (“Yes, Master Fauntleroy”) why should he act any differently in college? Spoiled, arrogant rich kids.