More than half of college professors bite their tongues over cancel culture fearsBy Rikki Schlott
February 28, 2023
Academic freedom is under siege. A new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reveals professors are shutting their mouths and biting their tongues out of fear of being canceled.
In their newly released report “The Academic Mind in 2022,” FIRE (where I’ve been a fellow since 2021) surveyed nearly 1,500 professors from colleges and universities across the country. The results show mass self-censorship and a widespread fear that saying the wrong thing could cost them their reputations — or even their jobs.
“I’ve been defending free speech on campus for twenty-two years now, and it was clear that things have been getting much worse over the past couple years,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff told me. “But looking at these numbers, it’s even worse than I thought.”
More than half (52%) of professors reported being “afraid of losing their jobs or reputations because someone misunderstands something they said or did, takes it out of context, or posts something from their past online.”
Some 72% of conservative faculty members and 56% of moderates felt this way, while 40% of liberal faculty members did. Roughly one-third (34%) said they often feel they can not express their opinions because of how students, colleagues or school administration might respond.
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Source:
https://nypost.com/2023/02/28/new-survey-reveals-college-professors-fear-of-being-canceled/
