For my Legal/Ethical Issues in Higher Education I had to create a policy that I would want to have on a college campus. I chose to do my research on hate speech relating to college campuses. My goal was to create a policy that would ensure all students on campus feel welcome, safe, and not discriminated against individually or collectively. I was originally thinking that banning hate speakers from campus would be an easy solution but I quickly found out that trying to make a policy involving speech is very tricky. There is a very fine line between freedom of speech, hate speech, and hate crimes. Through my research I found that more speech,not less, seems to be a better solution. However, I still feel a campus should be a safe space for it's students. Hate speech has a domino effect on people's attitudes and actions. A guest speaker may come and go easily but the aftermath of their message stays on campus. In extreme cases students can become injured and college property can be damaged. This project ended up being rather frustrating in the sense that I really did not find a straight forward solution that would appeal to all.
My law classmates did help me come up with an idea that would allow students to be more involved in the selection of speakers who visit campus. They suggested that a panel of opposing and supporting students, of the guest speaker, sit down before the invite is given and discuss any concerns or hopes relating to the speaker. One other take away from this assignment that I learned was the importance of learning to listen to one another. To learn how to push away that feeling of needing to be right and be able to understand opposing views and why they exist in the first place.
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