A survey on freedom of expression at UNC

3) STUDENTS GENERALLY PERCEIVE COURSE INSTRUCTORS TO BE OPEN MINDED AND ENCOURAGING OF PARTICIPATION FROM BOTH
LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES.

5) BOTH LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS WORRY ABOUT HOW STUDENTS AND FACULTY WILL RESPOND TO THEIR POLITICAL
VIEWS, AND STUDENTS ACROSS POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES ENGAGE IN SELF-CENSORSHIP.

6) ANXIETIES ABOUT EXPRESSING POLITICAL VIEWS AND SELF-CENSORSHIP ARE MORE PREVALENT AMONG STUDENTS WHO IDENTIFY AS
CONSERVATIVE.

11) OVER 25% OF STUDENTS ENDORSE BLOCKING A SPEAKER THEY DISAGREE WITH.

The report provides strong confirmation that conservatives face a hostile campus.

Among students who self-identify as liberals, some 10 percent said they hear “disrespectful, inappropriate, or offensive comments” about foreign students at least several times a semester, 14 percent said they hear disparaging comments about Muslims, 20 percent said they hear such comments about African Americans, 20 percent said they hear such comments about Christians, 21 percent said they hear such comments about LGBTQ individuals, and 57 percent said they hear such comments about conservatives. Among moderates, 68 percent said that they hear “disrespectful, inappropriate, or offensive comments” about conservatives at least several times a semester.

Out conservatives may face social isolation. Roughly 92 percent of conservatives said they would be friends with a liberal, and just 3 percent said that they would not have a liberal friend. Among liberals, however, almost a quarter said they would not have a conservative friend. Would UNC be a better place without conservatives? About 22 percent of liberals said yes. Would it be a better place without liberals? Almost 15 percent of conservatives thought so.

In closing, we emphasize that the wrong way to interpret our report would be to see it as pitting liberals against conservatives. Although our report highlights disparate challenges campus conservatives face, many liberal and moderate students face the very same challenges—most importantly, they are all worried, to some extent, about expressing sincere views in their classes. Moreover, although we document ways in which political hostility emerges disproportionately from the political left at UNC, this hostility often comes from a minority of campus liberals. Students who identify as liberal and who say they would be friends or roommates with a conservative student, and/or who think conservatives are important to the campus community, substantially outnumber those who do not (Table 15). Over 80% of students who identify as liberal say it is not appropriate to de-platform speakers proffering objectionable views (Table 17). And the students who identify as liberal and who want more conservative speakers far outnumber those who want fewer (Table 18). Some may be tempted to use our findings as yet another volley for one side or the other in the campus free expression debate. This would be disappointing because it would ignore the substantial cross-ideological agreement about what our campus should strive to be.