Universities Strive to Find Balance in Free Speech, Safety

As the spring semester starts on campuses across the country, officials say they are attempting to balance free speech and expression with safety concerns for students, faculty and staff.

Experts agree there is no easy solution to this quandary, with 2024 marking what is certain to be a contentious election year in the U.S., and recent world events causing more division across the nation.

Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania are both looking for new presidents, following intense backlash over public comments made by the previous leaders that many considered to be antisemitic and accusations that many elite schools have moved so far to the left that they are discriminating against more conservative voices and are not ensuring the safety of all students.

The New York Post reported last month that Harvard’s early admission applications had dropped nearly 20 percent with concerns lingering that the school may not protect all its students from hate.

Last fall, an instructor at Arizona State University was followed and attacked by two activists who were part of Turning Point USA, an organization keeping an online list of "professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."

The Arizona Republic recently reported that universities are increasingly facing security problems as digital harassment plays out in the real world, fueled in part by increasing political polarization.

Drew Neckar of the Security Advisors Consulting Group, which offers security consulting to health care institutions, K-12 schools, universities and businesses, told the newspaper: "Part of the nature of universities is to be a venue for divisive voices sometimes and to make people think by offering different opinions…and just because of the nature of that, they are susceptible to things like this."