The College Fix

‘The question is whether we are willing to protect the principle of free expression even when doing so is hard’: report

A recent report that found nearly 650 college students and student groups were punished by administrators for their constitutionally protected expression also included an interesting twist — both conservative and liberal students were among the targets.

The survey, released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, focused on campus censorship between 2020 and 2024 and found that students on opposing sides of the political spectrum do have one thing in common.

“What do Students for Justice in Palestine and Turning Point USA have in common? They were the most targeted campus groups over the last five years,” FIRE stated on X about its report.

“…SJP and TPUSA land on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but FIRE’s latest reporting reminds us of one crucial truth: When it comes to censorship, no one is safe,” the group wrote.

FIRE’s report, released in May, “documented 1,014 students and student groups who were either targeted for or recipients of punishment from either their administration or student government in response to their protected speech,” it stated.

Specifically, at least “637 students and student groups over the past five years who were punished in some way by their administrations for expression that is, or at a public college or university would be, protected by the First Amendment,” it added.

The punishments included censorship, suspensions, funding cuts, disenrollments and other similar consequences, according to FIRE, a free speech advocacy group.

Media relations representatives for both Students for Justice in Palestine and Turning Point USA did not respond to requests for comment from The College Fix.

FIRE Senior Researcher Logan Dougherty told The College Fix that the two unlikely partners in this scenario are censored for what colleges see as “provocative.”

“Liberal students tend to outnumber conservative students on campuses, and so to them the activities of conservative groups like TPUSA could be seen as especially concerning or scary,” he told The Fix via email.

“Meanwhile, SJP’s hard-to-miss activities expressing their position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worries not just many on campus but even more members of older generations, including politicians and many off-campus activist organizations. When it comes to these groups, administrators are getting pressure from both sides of the aisle, but unfortunately they don’t always come down on the side of free speech.”

Another point Dougherty highlighted was the fact that the censorship is coming from both the left and the right.

“Since the attack on Israel, we’re seeing threats more frequently coming from the right of those whose speech is being challenged, and the source of those threats more frequently are administrators and politicians,” said Dougherty.

FIRE does not see the rise in censorship as a partisan issue, he said.

“Neither the political left nor right are innocent when it comes to chilling student speech,” said Dougherty. “Regardless of where the pressure to censor originates, administrators have shown a willingness to suppress students’ protected speech when convenient.”

“This is more than just a left versus right issue – it’s a freedom of speech issue.”

Students for Justice in Palestine is a 30-year-old movement with over 350 chapters across America. Its website states the group stands “against state violence, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism in all of their forms.”

Across the ideological aisle is Turning Point USA, a nonprofit founded by conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. It seeks to “restore traditional American values like patriotism, respect for life, liberty, family, and fiscal responsibility.”

In the past, conservative groups have been censored to create a so-called safe space for campuses. Today, leftist groups such as SJP are being censored for the same reason, FIRE argued.

“The data from 2020 through 2024 reveal how quickly the winds of censorship can shift — from students demanding punishment in the name of social justice to administrators doing so in the name of ‘safety’ or as capitulation to federal pressure,” FIRE’s report stated.

“Whether it’s about race or the war in Gaza, when institutions give in to calls to punish speech, they undermine the very mission of higher education,” it added. “The question isn’t whether the speech in question is offensive or provocative — sometimes it surely is. The question is whether we are willing to protect the principle of free expression even when doing so is hard.”

“If we aren’t, then today’s targets could be tomorrow’s enforcers — and vice versa.”

Disclosure: The author is a student member of FIRE.

MORE: Nearly 650 college students punished for speech over last 5 years

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