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The Dartmouth
July 13, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Student Free Speech

I just completed a project for my education seminar on free speech on college campuses. You can bet there were plenty of people lining up to be interviewed and each person had a very strong opinion on what the boundaries of free speech should be at Dartmouth. I asked questions such as "Is free speech sacred on college campuses?" and "Should the institution protect students from harmful speech so that they can pursue their education?"

But then I had a revelation. Now, this vision may seem obvious to many of you, but it came as a surprise to me, so please humor me -- my questions were based on what the institution's policies on free speech should be, not on students' policies and standards. And then I realized that I really didn't care what the administration found acceptable or unacceptable. What matters is how students hold each other accountable for their speech and actions. What is more powerful -- the administration punishing you, or your friends and classmates letting you know when you've crossed the line?

For four years at Dartmouth I've worked with many others towards including students in the decision making process at the College. We screamed and yelled and protested and joined committees and wrote reports. And actually, I'd say we've made significant progress.

All of these actions were a result of my deep held belief regarding education: students should be empowered and take both responsibility and action as a group to make decisions for ourselves and create standards for our community. It just never occurred to me to apply this same concept of student voice and empowerment to the issue of free speech.

When there is an incident on campus, what do we do? We ask the administration to punish the wrongdoers. We ask them to make regulations about what is appropriate and what isn't in our community. We ask them to adjudicate the Principle of Community and hold students accountable for their actions in our community. We ask them to ban symbols or groups of people or events from happening.

But these requests, if directed at the administration, are entirely inconsistent with the idea of student empowerment! Rather than asking the administration to regulate speech, let's start asking students to do the same things. I don't want the administration telling me what is acceptable behavior in our community. I don't want rules to be set for student behavior by legal counsel and adjudication officers and committees. I don't want the administration to decide what groups can exist at Dartmouth and what they do here.

I want students to make these decisions responsibly. The administration shouldn't ban the Indian mascot. We should stamp it out ourselves. We should refuse to join a group that objectifies and ridicules others. The administrators shouldn't decide to derecognize a fraternity. Students on the Greek Judicial Committee should make that decision. The rest of the student body should support the students who do take responsibility for making these decisions. We should hold each other accountable for behavior on weekend nights, rather than evading Safety and Security. The administration shouldn't adjudicate the Principle of Community and decide if a student is being "sensitive to and respectful of the rights and interests of others." We should call each other out on racism and bigotry and homophobia and hurtful behavior before any administrators even become aware of the incident. And after we call each other out, we shouldn't recede into our books and forget about the incident. We, as a community, should impose informal sanctions on each other. Students should choose not to attend parties at houses that have shattered our sense of responsible and acceptable behavior. Friends should challenge each other not to say hurtful things.

I'm not suggesting that certain kinds of speech be banned or that students who say and do certain things be sanctioned for their actions. I'm suggesting that if you exercise your right to free speech, you need to expect that other students are going to hold you accountable for what you say. Rather than looking for the administration to do something punitive, students should begin to hold their roommates, brothers and sisters, and friends accountable for what they do.

After all, the university is the place where we explore ideas and test truth. So you have the right to say anything and do anything you want (as long as it's not threatening). Don't look to the administration to define the line of acceptable behavior. Allow the community of your peers to define those standards and hold each other to them.