Cracking down on speech

The Idaho legislature just cracked down on colleges teaching “social justice ideology.” They cut $409,000 from Boise State University’s budget and forced a number of “social justice”-related classes to move online and “asynchronous,” without any more live discussion.

To start, I teach at a public university. Political campaigning while on the job as a state employee is already a no-no. People I work with (including myself) all tend to err on the side of caution to avoid violating that law.

Second, the recent events in Idaho are concerning because they go further: restricting academic freedom and — especially — students’ freedom of speech.

The Idaho budget also prohibits using state funds to “support social justice ideology student activities, clubs, events, and organizations on campus.” Students should not have professors telling them what to believe in the classroom, but they should be allowed to freely organize and express themselves.

Third, teaching about social justice is not about telling students what to believe. This semester — as I’ve told my students — I am exposing them to a range of ideas and teaching them to think critically about them. I do not agree with all of the ideas they will read, and they do not have to either.

Agreeing with everything is far from the point. A lot of our discussion is around what is not true: What assumptions did the author make? How might their biases impact their conclusions?

As with any spoken conversation, to contribute to it, you must understand what is being said first. We equip students to participate in that conversation by understanding all sides of the debate.

The idea of college professors brainwashing students overlooks a key point: We couldn’t brainwash the students if we tried. Trust me. If it were possible, I would brainwash them to turn in their homework on time and read the instructions for each assignment.