A movement is growing in defense of free speech and viewpoint diversity at our nation’s elite educational institutions. The Buckley Program leads the way.
A movement is growing in defense of free speech and viewpoint diversity at our nation’s elite educational institutions. The Buckley Program leads the way.
R eading the news about speaker shout-downs and graduation walkouts on campuses across the country, it is easy to believe America’s university system is a lost cause, barely resembling the engine of new ideas and innovation it is supposed to be. But at Yale, there are reasons to believe the tide is turning.
To be fair, Yale has not been a bastion of free speech. Earlier this year, Yale received a Lifetime Censorship Award from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) for “repeatedly violating the free expression and academic freedom rights of students and scholars.” In 2021, FIRE ranked Yale 131 out of 159 schools for student comfort in sharing their opinions in “writing, in class, and among their peers and professors.” The flagship university was similarly ranked 125 for ideological diversity and 123 for resistance to disruptive conduct.
And these deplorable rankings have been earned. Yale Law School students shouting down a bipartisan panel on civil liberties made headlines earlier this year. Yale drafted an apology for a student who used the term “trap house” in a party invitation in October, and a group of Yale medical residents called for the firing of a lecturer who argued “that socioeconomic status and geography factor far more than racial bias in explaining racial disparities in healthcare outcomes,” even though she agreed that racial bias in health care also exists. And who can forget the Halloween costume controversy in 2015?
But there’s good news. During the 2021-2022 academic year, for the first time ever, the William F. Buckley Program at Yale had more than 500 student fellows simultaneously. The Buckley Program promotes intellectual diversity by bringing speakers with differing perspectives to campus and exposing students to ideas and concepts the university otherwise fails to provide.
It is telling that so many students would seek out diverse viewpoints at what is supposed to be one of the premier academic institutions in the world, setting the Buckley Program at Yale among the largest student groups on campus. Considering Yale has around 6,500 undergraduates in total, this means that almost 8 percent of Yale undergraduates turn to the Buckley Program to receive the well-rounded education they sought at Yale in the first place. What is Yale offering, if not an education that challenges its students intellectually and academically?
Students attend our events to hear perspectives they won’t hear elsewhere on campus and discuss questions they can’t discuss in the classroom. According to our 2021 national survey of college and university students, 50 percent of students feel intimidated in sharing ideas and opinions that differ from their professors or their classmates. With the threat of cancel culture exploding on campuses across the country, students and faculty alike are cowed into repeating only the politically correct answers to society’s burning questions, or self-censoring entirely. Thirty-six percent of the students surveyed believe violence is justified to prevent someone from “using hate speech or making racially charged comments.” Similarly, 37 percent believe “comments that are insensitive or offensive can also be considered as hate speech.” Asking the wrong questions could mean getting canceled socially, being forced into sensitivity training, losing a job, or being subject to violence.
The more than 500 Buckley Program student fellows seek out ideas that challenge their priors despite the risks. Students end vacations early to read Thucydides, discuss the Federalist Papers, and learn political lessons from Shakespeare’s Tempest. They bring heterodox voices to campus so conservative and liberal students can benefit from diverse perspectives. And they go out of their way to hear from supposedly controversial speakers, including through our annual Disinvitation Dinner, which has featured Bari Weiss, George Will, Ray Kelly, Henry Kissinger, Peter Thiel, and Charles Murray.
Yale students aren’t only interested in lectures, either. They want to watch ideas get battle-tested and rigorously challenged before them. Through Firing Line debates, the Yale student body has witnessed experts with different opinions examine contentious issues as wide-ranging as abortion, qualified immunity, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and marijuana legalization.
While the ideological makeup of the Buckley Program at Yale is by no means monolithic, the program is making a difference. According to the most recent survey of graduating fellows, over their four years at Yale, self-identified progressive students became more libertarian or moderate overall, contradicting the standard narrative that all college students are or become radical leftists.
This shift demonstrates that these efforts positively affect the campus culture. When Yale students are offered a range of views, ideas that challenge them, and well-articulated arguments that fairly represent different sides of the issues, the campus can become more welcoming to diverse points of view.
All is not lost on America’s college campuses. A movement is growing in defense of free speech and viewpoint diversity at our nation’s elite educational institutions. Students, like those at Yale, have demonstrated that they are thirsty for perspectives otherwise lacking on campus. The tide is turning, and the Buckley Program at Yale is a part of that sea change.