Dear President Davis (September 2025)
Is Lack of Community the Reason for Student Self-Censorship at Furman?
September 15, 2025
President Elizabeth Davis
Furman University
3300 Poinsette Highway
Greenville, SC 29613
The FFSA hopes the start of the school year is going well. Many of us hope to join the festivities at Homecoming in October, and we all anticipate a Paladin victory over The Citadel.
And most of all, we invite you to join us for some superb BBQ at our tent before the game.
Last week, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released its annual college free speech rankings. We will cover its findings in a separate post. Here, I want to ask you some questions about student self-censorship and its causes.
A couple of highlights from the survey:
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they self-censor during conversations with professors, occasionally (38%), fairly often (19%), or very often (6%). This is up from 49% in last year’s survey.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they self-censor during classroom discussions occasionally (43%), fairly often (19%), or very often (5%). That is up slightly from 61% in last year’s survey.
Forty-six percent of respondents said they would feel very or somewhat uncomfortable expressing views on a controversial topic during an in-class discussion, down from 54% in the 2024 survey.
Of equal interest are student comments given in the survey. “I am scared to speak on my politics in public settings, mostly due to fear of backlash from my peers,” said one Paladin.
There is some very good news as well.
Eighty-four percent of students believe Furman’s administration protects free speech on campus.
That’s an impressive number in which you can justifiably take pride.
Still, by any measure, these findings on self-censorship are disturbing. All this begs the question: Why do Furman students self-censor? The survey itself suggests, as do the verbal responses, that fear of ostracism and negative peer reaction is a significant factor.
But those who study this matter point to other possible causes.
Academic Disengagement. Students may tend to have a transactional view of college; it’s where you build your resume, not where you explore the deepest questions and refine and enlarge your ability to think. If that’s the attitude, why bother engaging in a debate over ideas?
The Campus Culture Discourages Dissent. Another possible explanation is the existence of a largely monochromatic political culture on campus. Samantha Hedges, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and many others examine this cultural problem in detail. Furman should pay attention.
The case of Senior Peter Paluszak, which we covered in detail here, is an example of what these researchers have found. Peter was mobbed and ridiculed by his fellow students during his authorized pro-life demonstration. Professors are known to have let their students out of class to join the demonstration. Tolerance, open discourse, community of learners: there was none of that at Furman that day. And not a peep out of the Administration.
I conclude with one request: that your administration show a modicum of curiosity about student self-censorship. I offer no conclusion on its source; I only suggest that Furman can be a model for other colleges by leading an effort to understand the root causes of self-censorship and developing a response.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Salmon
President
Furman Free Speech Alliance
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