College is a time in one's life when many individuals begin to develop their own identity. Oftentimes, this is done outside of the classroom by joining student organizations such as campus clubs, athletics, Greek organizations or volunteering in the local community. Furthermore, in the academic setting, college students can expand their current perspectives by taking college courses that focus on current events. By doing these activities, college students are learning about multiple viewpoints which they otherwise would have not discovered. However, are some of these developing viewpoints valid? Are the ideas developed in the collegiate academic setting appealing to the majority of students or only a for a few? To solve this issue of validity and inclusiveness on campus for developing multiple viewpoints, colleges should have a system of speech codes put in place.
Speech codes are necessary to have on college campuses because they help promote a safe and positive learning environment for all students regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. However, to concur with this ideal, one must know what the definition of a speech code is, and what purpose it promotes to serve students who reside on college campuses. According to FIRE, the Foundation of Equal Rights in Education, speech codes are “….any university regulation or policy that prohibits expression that would be protected by the First Amendment in society at large. [This includes] any policy—such as a harassment policy, a protest and demonstration policy, or an IT acceptable use policy if it prohibits protected speech or expression." Therefore, because speech codes endorse student’s rights to be protected, I promote the use of speech codes on campuses for various reasons.
By having speech codes enacted on campuses, Colleges will help lessen the attitude of intolerance several students may feel about the minority groups who attend their campuses. Therefore, speech codes would help to enforce consequences on the perpetrating student’s threats which would otherwise lead to hate crime violence. According to Charles R. Lawrence, in the article "Regulating Racist Speech on Campus," he mentions “racial epithets and harassment often cause deep emotional scaring and feelings of anxiety and fear that pervade every aspect of a victim’s life.” Because of the unnecessary harm directed towards a students’ educational well-being caused by these types of speech, colleges need to remind their students about what does and what does not qualify as free speech on a college campus.
However, many opponents of speech code usage on college campuses use the excuse that their speech is protected by the First Amendment, and that it should not be infringed upon because of the viewpoints of the college campus they are attending. However to clarify their viewpoint, "when speech takes the form of face-to-face insults, catcalls or other assaultive speech aimed at an individual or small groups of persons, it falls directly within the “ fighting words” [which is an] exception to [the] First Amendment protection." Due to the perpetrating student’s intolerant use of language, it does not create an environment which is cohesive to the growth of education for all students. Rather, the use of demeaning speech degrades an educational environment and causes the victims of the speech to lose their First Amendment rights due to the fear of receiving even more backlash from the perpetrating student. “[Therefore] we must look for ways to offer assistance and support to students whose speech and political participation are chilled in a climate of racial harassment.” In turn, if colleges help out these students by having speech code guidelines they will create a unified educational environment.
However, without speech codes enacted, many colleges may become homogeneous rather than heterogeneous in its student population. According to Richard Delgado in the article "Hate Cannot Be Tolerated," it was mentioned that “the campuses where highly publicized incidents of hate speech [had] taken place show[ed] a decline in minority enrollment as students of color instead chose to attend schools were the environment [was] healthier.” This statement should be alarming to the educational community because often diversity is limited on campuses due to the colleges not regulating hate crimes or creating “reasonable rules aimed at accommodation that [promote] diversity and regulat[e] the conduct of bullies and bigots."
In conclusion, speech codes are a must on today’s college campuses because they promote a safe environment of learning for all students, a less hostile environment for students who identify as a minority, and they make the college environment more diverse in their student population.With these positive results, the benefits outweigh the negatives for colleges to adopt a set of speech codes.
