What Is the University of Arizona Hiding?
Editors’ note: It is helpful to see the Goldwater Institute and others attempt to keep freedom of speech alive on campus. They should be commended for the effort. However, the issue is broader than that. Almost all elements of theĀ cultural rot in our institutions emanate from the university campus. It would not be a stretch at all to say that “woke ideology” now seen in everything from the military to sports, corporations to museums, started on campus. With at least 30 states with Republican legislatures, when are Republicans going to turn their attention to reforming our universities? To be sure, not much can be done with the well-endowed private university. However, universities that receive state aid should be a top priority for lawmakers. Taxpayers, students, and parents should not have to underwrite indoctrination that hides under the cover of education. Besides not having to pay for their own destruction, citizens need to appreciate that education itself is damaged by such lop-sided and extreme viewpoint bias that is prevalent on campus today.Ā
Orwellian. Itās a word that aptly describes the University of Arizonaās campus reporting apparatus, which encourages students to snitch on their peers to university authorities for politically incorrect or ābiasedā speech. But when a reporter filed a public records request seeking copies of the complaints generated under this bias response system (BRS)āwith personal identifying information redactedāthe school refused to release them.
Thatās why the Goldwater Institute sent aĀ letter to the university Wednesday demanding it complies with Arizona law and release the records.
College campuses should be places of free and open exchange, where students can respectfully discuss opposing viewpoints and think critically about the major issues of the day. But instead, progressives are using bias response teams to implement their own, illiberal agenda across the country. Theyāre breeding an army of young people intolerant of free expression, who inform on one another at the slightest deviation from the script of political correctness. In fact, aĀ recent studyĀ of 824 public and private universities found that 56% (457 schools) had some form of BRS. In essence, leftists are fostering a culture of fear over free speech, with 83% of college students saying they engaged in self-censorship, according to anotherĀ recent survey.Ā Put simply, there can be no safe spaces at all for students to speak if their peers can report on them at any given moment.
Last August, Christian Schneider, a senior reporter withĀ The College Fix, submitted a public records request to the University of Arizona to shed light on the anonymous complaints generated by the universityās Public Incident Report website. The university had also previously provided responsive records after he made a near-identical request in 2019. But this time around, the school denied his request, claiming it was withholding the reports āto protect the privacy of persons and best interests of the state,ā even though Schneider asked for the names of the complainants and the targets of the reports to be redacted.
The College FixĀ regularly investigates bias response teams around the country to shine a light on what sorts of incidents are being reported and whether bias response systems are infringing on free speech rights. In one instance that Schneider reported on, aĀ Michigan State studentĀ filed a complaint after witnessing his roommate watch a Ben Shapiro video on his laptop, which prompted an administrator to allow for a room change. In another, aĀ Portland State University studentĀ was reported for making an off-hand comment about sometimes feeling like sheās āschizophrenic.ā Trivial complaints such as these only serve to chill speech and foment distrust among the campus community.
So what is the University of Arizona hiding? Is it afraid that revealing the ābiasā incidents reported to administratorsāpublic information that it has a legal obligation to releaseāwill expose the Orwellian nature of this system?Ā Arizonans have a right to know about the educational climate in our public universities, especially how administrators handle complaints about controversial topics. And thatās exactly the information Goldwater intends to uncover.
For years, Goldwater has been a nationwide leader in restoring free speech on campus. WeāreĀ successfully standing up forĀ the constitutional rights of students being silenced, and weāveĀ crafted legislationĀ to address the free speech crisis on public colleges and universities. Our reform, which we have already enacted in five states, creates an official university policy affirming the importance of free expression, including provisions that form aĀ system of interlocking incentivesĀ designed to encourage students and administrators to respect and protect the free expression of others. This reform is working exactly like itās supposed to in places like the University of Wisconsin system, where outrage mobsĀ tried and failedĀ to cancel conservative speakers on multiple occasions.
And weāre building on this work to dismantle the campus thought police with aĀ complementary new model policy, developed in partnership with Speech First, that puts a stop to the corrosive new practice of bias response teams by prohibiting public universities and community colleges from operating any such system that works to chill student speech. In tandem with theĀ Campus Free Speech Act, the new āProtecting Students from Bias Reporting Systemsā policy requires universities to uphold constitutional principles and help fosterĀ intellectualĀ diversity on campus.
All around the nation, Goldwater is working to ensure that American colleges resemble safe havens for free and open exchange rather than a surveillance state.
*****
This article was published by the Goldwater Institute and is reproduced with permission.