Canadian students fear consequences of expressing their views in class
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Summary
The majority of Canadian students seem to have come to a consensus: there are consequences to expressing a non-mainstream view in Canadian university classes. To uncover more, we spoke with Matthew Mitchell, Senior Fellow at the Centre of Human Freedom, and Michael Zweigstra, a Fellow at The Fraser Institute, to ask over 1,200 Canadian students questions related to whether they're allowed to have open and free discussions in their classrooms.
Transcript
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The majority of Canadian students seem to have come to a consensus.
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There are consequences to expressing a non-mainstream view in Canadian university classes.
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Hello, my name is Leah Muschett, I'm a reporter here at the Western Standard,
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and I sat down with Matthew Mitchell, Senior Fellow to the Centre of Human Freedom,
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who conducted a survey with his colleague Michael Zweigstra, Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute
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as well, with over 1,200 university Canadian students asking them questions related to whether
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they're allowed to have open and free discussions in their classrooms.
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Overall, they came to the conclusion one in three students feared formal consequences,
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like professors lowering their grades for expressing their honest views.
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So we were interested in gaining a better understanding of how constrained
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Canadian university students feel in terms of their ability to express themselves on campus,
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whether they encountered diverse viewpoints, and whether diverse viewpoints were
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And so to that end, we commissioned this poll from Leger that's 1,200 Canadian university students
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who are either current students or recently graduated.
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And we asked them a number of questions that sort of dug at the idea of encountering viewpoint diversity
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and what sort of constraints people encountered in terms of what they were allowed to,
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the opinions that they felt comfortable expressing in the classroom.
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So for one of the first questions I have on the actual study itself,
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I kind of would be interested in knowing what were your conclusions from the results of the study?
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So I'd say, number one, a large number of students, both center, left and right,
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So, you know, a majority of them said that they felt that there was a safe viewpoint on the university
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So, and a large number felt that they had to self-censor in terms of their views.
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Then the second thing I think that comes out is when you then dig into, you start dividing the
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answers based on whether people are self-described as left of center, center or right of center,
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then they seem to find different, they have pretty different perspectives and pretty different
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So right of center students felt, you know, more constrained than left of center students.
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They felt like they were more likely to encounter left of center professors, for example, and they
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felt more likely to encounter like actual consequences for expressing their opinions.
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So they're, they were, a pretty significant majority felt that they were likely to have
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their grades, were worried about their grades being lowered if they express their views.
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And I was also wondering, because, yeah, you said there was different depending on like where
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they leaned on the political spectrum of like, what they were concerned about.
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Um, I don't recall if I read this in the actual study itself.
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But was there like any concerns that the majority shared, no matter like their political leanings,
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Yeah, so, um, so let's see here, if we dig in, um, a majority of students, both center,
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middle and left felt that there was a correct viewpoint on campus or a right view.
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Um, so that's one where there's a fair amount of agreement.
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Um, if students felt that their professors were pushing a particular viewpoint,
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they actually, well, uh, so 83% of right of center students, uh, said that the viewpoint
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that was pushed was, was a left view, whereas only 45% of left students said that.
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But another way, so you, you could look at that and say, okay, it's a big difference, 83 to 45.
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On the other hand, the other way to look at it is almost half of left of center students think,
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agree with their right of center colleagues that professors have a left of center bias.
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So, uh, even, uh, you know, relatively sizable portion of left of center students are, are,
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are, um, kind of conceding that their professors, yeah, they're left of center.
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Right. Like on that note as well, since it's like, they recognize that most of their professors are
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having these, uh, specific views with that, like, so then I'm thinking it would be more,
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mostly they're concerned about like the grade aspect, because they obviously are in school,
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so they want to be successful there. And yeah, so that's the outcome of that.
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Yeah, there, there was a little bit of a difference here between left of center and
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right of center in terms of what are the, what are, what are the types of consequences that they
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are most likely are most worried about. So first of all, it's helpful, I think,
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maybe to break this down in terms of formal consequences versus informal consequences.
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So if you ask the students, okay, what are the formal consequences you're most worried about
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from expressing a view? Um, 74% of right leaning students said that they were afraid of, uh, that
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the professor would lower their grade 53% of left of center students, uh, had the same concern. Uh, and
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in, in terms of the formal consequences, that's like the big one that they're, that they're worried
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about. Um, about a third of both left and right that we're worried about that the professor might not
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write them a letter of recommendation, um, or that other students would, uh, file a complaint. Now,
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if you go to the, to the informal, that's where there's a little bit more of a disagreement there.
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So among right of center students, the, the, uh, most common cons informal concern or informal
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uh, consequence of expressing their opinions that they were afraid of was that other students
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would criticize them. Whereas among left of center students, their most common concern was that the
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professor wouldn't like them. Hmm. So it kind of breaks a little bit. Yeah. That's interesting.
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Yeah, no. Cause then I guess they both kind of do sound like they want to socially
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conform just in different ways out of fear, I guess. Yeah. I think the, the right-leaning students
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are, uh, trying to socially conform to their peers and left-leaning students are trying to
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socially conform to the professors. Is it maybe a good way to put it? That's true. I like,
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you wouldn't have, like, what do you think is the reason for that? Do you have any, like, thoughts on that?
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You know, maybe it has something to do with if you share the opinion of your professor,
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then you're more worried about their view of you versus if you're, if you feel like, uh, they, they
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don't share my opinion or my view. So that, that doesn't matter to me, but I don't want to be ridiculed
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by my peers. I, I'm speculating a little bit here, but that kind of would be consistent with what we're
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saying. That sounds reasonable. Yeah. I would understand why. Okay. Um, as to my next question,
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um, when you were asking like the students, like the different types of, uh, sorry, I quoted you
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here. So let me just read it. Um, or exactly the question that was being asked, who experienced a
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classroom environment at university that limited discussion questions on controversial topics
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to only one side of the argument. Oh yeah. That one. Um, so I know you just did the survey and
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stuff, so they didn't give you like any examples as to like, what would be the majority opinions of
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certain topics at all? No, we didn't get down to, uh, you know, what's your view of the Israeli
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Palestinian conflict or anything like that, if that's kind of what you mean, uh, it's just really
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sort of more generic, uh, are multiple perspectives welcome or not. Um, also this question just occurred
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to me, but I feel like maybe it is the case. Do you think the internet also plays a part in this?
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Because maybe the reason why it feels like this is because if they're socially ridiculed or they're
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ridiculed by the professor or whatever, it can also just like go public easily. And like, it can reach
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a bunch of different people than it, it would never reach in the past, I guess. Yeah. Uh, I mean,
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I think that's a great question. I, I wish I, I don't know if we have enough information from this
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survey to, to indicate that, um, we didn't ask specifically, you know, are they, are you worried
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about, uh, being videotaped and going viral or anything like that? Uh, in retrospect, that would
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have been a great question to ask, but, um, I, I mean, I do think that people are just in general from other,
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other research. We know that students are increasingly aware, of course, that their digital,
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uh, footprint is last forever. Right. And there's, um, you have to be aware of that in terms of your
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reputation, but I don't know. I think that spec that's going a little bit beyond the bounds of
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this survey. Okay. Then, yeah. Cause I was going to also ask you like what you think, obviously,
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yeah, it's kind of more like a speculation thing, but if you were to take this like survey 10 years ago,
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yeah, you would get similar results. So probably I don't think it as much. One thing is, you know,
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we know that over time, um, there is less viewpoint diversity on campuses. Um, you know,
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professors were less likely to self-identify as, as left of center versus right of center, um, uh, in the
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past. Um, and I think we also are seeing some indication that, um, professors are more comfortable
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viewing their role as, as pushing, uh, as advocating a position, uh, rather than necessarily, uh, it's,
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you know, we're exploring this, this question as scientists or as, as thinkers rather than,
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you know, we're trying to change the world. So I think there is, there is evidence of that.
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Definitely. That makes sense. Okay. Um, let's see. I guess I kind of did ask you about your own
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conclusions already, but what do you want? Like readers that are going to look at this survey,
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what do you want them to conclude from this or like, what do you think they can do to counteract
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this sort of thing that's happening on campuses and like students aren't able to like
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say what they think? Yeah. Great question. So, um, I think there's a couple of things that we can
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think about one, you know, I want the schools to take this seriously and I want professors to take this,
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this seriously, those of us who are, you know, spend time in a classroom. We know that we have an
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obligation to, um, make that classroom as much of a, uh, marketplace of ideas as we can, where people
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are free to raise questions, challenge existing models, you know, express their values and then,
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you know, let the ideas contend with, with one another. Um, and, and it's incumbent on professors,
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uh, to, to recognize they may have a perspective and that's okay. All of us have perspectives,
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but you still want to want to make sure that the students feel comfortable expressing their views.
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Um, in terms of the, the other thing I want universities to better understand is that they
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need to take the lack of viewpoint diversity on campuses seriously. Um, and again, you can hide,
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you, you can and should all of us have biases and you should hire, uh, professors. Uh, it's okay to hire a
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left of center professor, but you should also try to make sure that you hire people with other
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viewpoints because if students are only getting that one perspective, that's, that's a problem.
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Um, and then finally, I think I would say it's really good to think through what are some
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institutional, um, mechanisms that campuses, that universities can implement that try to encourage,
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uh, you know, more of this challenge process, more of this viewpoint diversity.
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Um, so whether it's, um, free speech, you know, codes that say that are protecting the freedom
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of, uh, both professors and students to express their views, um, University of Chicago has some
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interesting models around that and a lot of other, a lot of universities have adopted some of these.
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Um, whether it's, um, there's interesting models of, uh, like student bill of rights that essentially
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say, you know, you have a right to express your view. And if you feel that you have been silenced,
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you also have a means of redressing that and you can, you can bring it up to the administration.
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So those kinds of, it's not just, you know, changing mindsets, but I think it's also changing
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institutions and incentives. So the professors and universities are incentivized to make it a marketplace
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of ideas. Well, that's all I, the questions I have for you. So. Awesome. Well, great questions.
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Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yeah. It was interesting. So I appreciate you coming.
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Yeah. And if you ever have any other studies that I find interesting, I'll definitely reach out to you.
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Oh, great. Thank you. Awesome. Yeah. Feel free to reach out anytime.