A report at Medium was highlighted in the New York Times article below (click on screenshot), which sent me to the original study on which both articles were based.

I looked at the articles above a few days ago, but have largely forgotten what they said, so I’ll take the conclusions below from the original Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey (go to short article by clicking on screenshot below, or get full pdf here):

The study, also supported by the Charles Koch Foundation (!) and the Stanton Foundation, is based on telephone interviews with 3014 US college students (four-year schools only)—a response rate of 47% of those contacted who had previously completed a web survey. I’ll highlight just what I see as the major/most interesting conclusions.

Half the students don’t trust the media. Trust has, however, increased among Democrats in the last two years, and by 20%, though remaining unchanged among Republicans. I suppose Democrats, not trusting the government, have to trust the news, but I really have no idea why the big increase happened. Here are the data (“HCBU means “historically black colleges and universities, which were singled out for black students):

Students think that free speech is important to a democracy, but so is “promoting an inclusive society that is welcoming to diverse groups”. The figures are about equal; apparently the students are oblivious to the fact that these two issues may conflict with each other (see speech code data below).

When given a choice about which of the two above is more important, students opt for inclusivity than protecting free speech. Look at the big disparity between men and women, with men taking a far more positive stand on free speech while women favor having a diverse and inclusive society. As expected, blacks value inclusion and diversity more than whites, as do Democrats compared to Republicans.

Extending the above to campus environments, students prefer, by a large margin an “open” campus environment that allows offensive speech compared to a “positive” environment that prohibits certain speech. The only slight outlier is Republicans, who are less keen on speech prohibition. This is good news, as although most students value diversity over free speech, they don’t see it that way when it comes to the college environment they experience. I hope this means that they realize that a true learning environment is one with less suppression of speech.

Most students think that “hate speech” shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment. Note that they’re not talking about campuses here, but in general. That means that most students think that the courts’ interpretation of the First Amendment—which allows “hate speech” that is not harassing in the workplace nor poses a clear and immediate danger to people’s safety—is WRONG. In other words, they’re more censorious than the law itself. Note again the difference between men and women, which is larger than between whites and blacks. Even Republicans are more on the side of not protecting hate speech than protecting it, though the split, compared to that of other groups, is more even.

Finally, substantial majorities of students support campus codes that restrict language or costumes that are offensive or “stereotype certain racial or ethnic groups”, but fewer are in favor of restrictive “offensive” political viewpoints (e.g., those on my own campus who want to ban Steve Bannon’s upcoming debate):

Private colleges, of course, can pretty much do what they want vis-à-vis speech codes, but note that a majority of students over all universities (and there are more students in public than private universities) favor restrictions that violate the First Amendment. While colleges should encourage civility and comity among members of different groups, what bothers me is the preponderance of students who want “hate speech” restricted by the government—a violation of the First Amendment. I think students need an education about the First Amendment as part of their first-year orientation activities.

The report contains a lot more data and many other intriguing questions posed to the subjects, but I’ll leave you to read about that on your own.