The classroom is the key to solving America’s campus free speech crisis 

On April 21, students at UCLA disrupted a speech by James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s general counsel, at a meeting of the conservative Federalist Society. As Fox News reports, they booed Percival, holding signs with foul language, one of which read “F— you, loser.” The students also set off different sounds on their phones as part of the disruption, and at different points, yelled out the word “Nazi.”  

What happened at UCLA is just the latest in a long series of similar incidents that have roiled campuses and fueled the Trump administration’s campus crackdown. According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, in 2025, there were 172 such attempts to cancel or disrupt speakers or events on campuses around the country. 

Colleges have tried almost everything to protect speech on campus — so far, without great success.

One possible solution is close at hand. It involves teaching students about academic freedom and using the classroom to cultivate habits and dispositions that promote empathy tolerance, and a willingness to listen to even the most upsetting arguments.

What happened at UCLA, and has happened on other campuses, suggests a failure inside, not just outside, the classroom. Colleges and universities won’t be able to fix their free speech problems until they address problems in the way they educate their students. 

Colleges have two very different venues for expressing ideas. One is the classroom; the other is in residence halls and and in places........

© The Hill