Free Speech College

The smell of freshly trimmed grass pervades the quad on campus while walking to a 9am class. A few birds spring from the winding pathways onto tall trees craning over bustling students. Flowers are beginning to bloom, and while on this stroll at a college that students are so proud of attending, something disrupts the tranquility. Screams and yells come from a group of raging students; trying to get past the rowdy crowd, they shove their opinions down your throat. But this is just another day at school that is becoming too familiar. As time goes on, free speech proves to be more disruptive than affective on college campuses.

College is a stepping-stone to a concrete career, for it’s a place for education and experience. Months before attending college, people search for the new place they will call home. Unfortunately, those places are also home to rallies, boycotts, and marches that are too often disorderly. Issues over race, politics, and religion are common, and most of the time, these topics will build up anger from those

The first priority of college is to better your education, but free speech can lead to distractions. Whether the protester or the bystander, both roles will have a toll on schooling. Someone involved with movements on campus could take time away from studying and academics, while others can’t study outside of their dorms without large crowds and noise. People imagine college campuses as large sanctuary, but “whether sitting in a large lecture hall, underneath a tree, or in front of a computer screen, students are engulfed by environmental information.” (Graetz). This is why the location of where people speak up can have such an impact on people just trying to get their degree. People gravitate towards colleges to demonstrate free speech, but why not the surrounding cities or the college towns? Students need to recall the reason they’re at college in the first