Few in new poll say conservatives can speak freely on college campuses

Americans in a new survey said they believe college campuses are more likely to be open to liberals than conservatives when it comes to free speech.

Forty-seven percent of adults questioned said liberals on college campuses have “a lot” of freedom to express their opinion, while only 20 percent said conservatives do, according to the poll from the University of Chicago and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. While Republicans are more likely to report a bias against conservatives on college campuses, the poll found Democrats do as well.

Only 9 percent of Republicans said conservatives can speak freely on campus, while 58 percent said liberals can speak their minds. The poll found that about 4 in 10 Democrats said liberals can express their views freely, while about 3 in 10 Democrats said conservatives can.

The poll comes after a handful of students at U.S. colleges held protests against conservative guests at their schools over the past year.

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year, thousands of students at George Washington University signed a petition in an effort to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from his teaching position, which he stepped down from shortly afterward. At nearby Georgetown University, dozens of students walked out of a speech given by former Vice President Mike Pence last year to protest.

The new poll also found that the majority of Americans said students and teachers should not be allowed to express racist, sexist or anti-LGBTQ views on campus, and 55 percent percent of respondents said students should not be allowed to invite academic speakers accused of using offensive speech.

The poll was conducted among 1,095 adults Sept. 7-11 and has a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.