A study by a California State University professor found that an increase in “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies at a college is linked to rising opposition to free speech.
“The rise of DEI bureaucracies has actually coincided with the beginning of a ‘Free-Speech Crisis on College Campuses,’” notes the study.
The study was published on Substack by Kevin Wallsten, a political-science professor at California State University at Long Beach.
“It was clear from the start that, regardless of what was on their websites, DEI bureaucracies were more likely to suppress than encourage free expression on college campuses,” the study observes.
The study examined 71 universities using survey data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2022 rankings of university support for free speech and a Heritage Foundation study on DEI offices issued in 2021.
The Heritage Foundation study focused on DEI bureaucracies. FIRE’s survey is a yearly survey ranking colleges on their free-speech climate.
DEI bureaucracies did not increase inter-group tolerance, but were associated with rising opposition to free speech, according to the study, titled ,“Is DEI Destroying Free Speech on Campus?”
DEI bureaucracies also are associated with more barriers to students to speaking freely outside of the classroom and rising incidents in which campus speech is disrupted through violence, blockades, and shouting down speakers.
Students at Stanford University, which has been under criticism over a disruption of a speech at its law school, expressed the most support for disrupting an opposing campus speaker, of any student body among the 71 universities.
Campus free speech climates can deteriorate, or improve, quickly, because of rapid student turnover. “Campus speech climates can change quickly. Student populations experience tremendous turnover across time, with the student body being replaced in its entirety every few years. What’s more, a single, high-profile controversy on a campus might dramatically alter how comfortable students feel expressing themselves. Similarly, DEI efforts may expand or contract in ways that communicate different things to different student cohorts about the boundaries of acceptable speech.”
He called for more research about “the relationship between DEI bureaucracies and free speech environments.”
