Some University of Memphis students may be apprehensive about engaging in debates with professors and classmates because they fear negative consequences for offering an opinion.
Freshman psychology major Alexander Hopper, 18, said he believes there is a mob mentality on campus. He said he would like to see the university encourage open dialogue.
“Students are walking on egg shells at the UofM," Hopper said. "There is little room for differing opinion."
Hopper said he was concerned with the protesting of public speakers’ free speech on campus and that President M. David Rudd was “bullied” into forfeiting a raise that he “quite honestly deserved.”
In his student development class last semester, Hopper said he once disagreed with his professor and classmates over “facts and truth being more important than how someone feels emotionally.” Hopper said he took a controversial stance that was met with hostility.
“Everyone turned it around on me, asserted that everyone has his or her own truth and that facts are not good enough," Hopper said.
Hopper said despite hostility from his professors, he’s determined to remain kind and civil. He said this was especially difficult in one of his psychology classes when he questioned his professor’s presentation of certain suicide statistics.
“She refused to listen to what I was saying, and when I showed her the proof, she yelled at me for having my phone out in class,” Hopper said.
After this incident, Hopper said he became more cautious about speaking up in class, despite his desire to participate in intellectual debate.
Hopper said he chose not to speak up in one of his other psychology classes.
“I disagreed with a lot, but never said anything. The professor already had several outbursts over lesser things, and made it clear she did want to hear my ideas, so I just shut up and tried to survive the class.”
Senior engineering major Cassidy Calcutt said that while there are fewer opportunities for political and cultural debate in the engineering labs compared to other classes, she can do so when needed, having spent time studying and preparing for difficult conversations with her professors and classmates.
“Since I’ve spent so much time working out my positions, I’m pretty comfortable speaking my mind on these issues,” Calcutt said. According to Calcutt, the most frequent “issues” that come up include free speech, the Second Amendment and abortion. While the idea of free speech may seem uncontroversial to many, Calcutt claims many of her friends who identify as progressive tend to be in favor of regulating speech.
Derefe Chevannes, a political science professor at the UofM, said there is an ideological divide when it comes to free speech on college campuses. Chevannes said while some believe restricting speech helps to guarantee democracy, the values of “intellectual diversity in an open society where all views should contend,” and constructing “the university as a place of robust debate not one of dictatorial control,” are not views shared by both sides.
The UofM Mission Statement’s core values include “diversity and inclusion,” and “Academic Excellence.”
