The promise of American higher education has always been to equip young people with the skills and knowledge necessary to become wise and productive members of society.

Today, going to college is less promising and more perilous for the thousands of young people who come to campus and immediately meet angry activists and administrators determined to hush up the rhetoric of anyone who dares to question orthodoxy. liberal.

Consider a recent story from Yale Law School, where rogue administrators persecuted a Native American student for sending an invitation to a cheerful party to his peers. Administrators pressured the student to issue a creepy apology and even claimed that his membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, had “triggered” his peers.

Or consider another story from the University of Virginia medical school. After a presentation on so-called “micro-aggression,” a medical student asked the presenter a series of pointed questions, arguing that the concept was ill-defined and based on feelings rather than facts.

A LIBERAL WAPO TIMEKEEPER SLAMS YALE “TRIGGERED” AFTER REPORT ON INVITATION TO A “RACIST” PARTY: “TO GROW A LITTLE”

As a result of this exchange, the University of Virginia subjected the student to a bureaucratic nightmare of brutal and increasingly severe punishments.

First, a professor filed a “Professionalism Concern Map” against the student for his critical questioning. Then the student was to meet with a dean for a lecture on his behavior. Then he was informed that he would not be allowed to attend classes without consulting a psychologist. Finally, the school suspended the student after he objected to the way he was being treated.

The student then filed a lawsuit against the university for infringing his First Amendment rights. This case is pending. However, the university denied any wrongdoing, stating that “offensive speech by students does not enjoy First Amendment protection.”

This student’s story is not just anecdotal: Freedom of speech is under constant attack on campuses across the country. Professors and administrators have become almost uniformly liberal. This near uniformity of belief has led to arrogant demands for compliance of belief.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, 60% of students said they could not express their true opinions at school. Republican students were much more likely to censor themselves than liberal students.

FORMERS DECLARE AGAINST CANCEL CULTURE COLLEGE ON ‘FOX & FRIENDS’: FREE SPEECH DEFENDERS ‘IN THE NUMBER’

While schools once prided themselves on fostering free and open debate, today they create “safe spaces” to protect students from difference, diversity of opinion and dissent. Courts have overturned many oppressive speech restrictions on college campuses – including tiny “free speech zones” schools use to surround street preachers and protesters – but that hasn’t stopped colleges and universities to fight tooth and nail to preserve their codes of speech.

What is even more alarming, opposition to free speech infects the student body. In earlier times, this trend gave rise to protest movements that vehemently opposed restrictions on the freedom of expression of students; today, however, campus revolutionaries are leveraging everything from bullying to character assassination to outright violence to end the debate.The FIRE survey found that nearly a third of students believe that former President Donald Trump should not be allowed to speak on a college campus.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

This observation, which signals the desire of the younger generations to consider freedom of expression as a conditional privilege, rather than as a fundamental right, explains the rise in so-called “shouting down” or “degradation” incidents, where students prevent someone from speaking by drowning them with megaphones and disruptive behavior.

In one notable case, an angry mob of left-wing protesters prevented conservative sociologist Charles Murray from giving a lecture at Middlebury College. The mob then physically assaulted Murray and a female professor as they left campus, an attack that left the professor in a neck brace.

Just a few weeks ago, a University of Washington student vandalized a 9/11 memorial sponsored by college Republicans by ripping American flags off the ground and putting them in trash bags. Fortunately, the flags have been returned and the campus is investigating the incident.

A democracy that does not tolerate freedom of expression will not stay that way for long. It is essential that we claim our colleges and universities so that they provide value to future generations of Americans, and not just an exclusive refuge for Marxists and other radicals.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

That is why we are announcing the creation of a new Senate caucus dedicated to protecting freedom of expression on college campuses. This caucus, which already has the support of four of our Republican colleagues, will promote legislation to ensure that various points of view are respected and discussed.

If the colleges are to live up to their responsibilities to this country and justify the huge public support we are giving them, they need to lead by example. We all have a duty to help young Americans become better citizens, and we should start by teaching them to respect and embrace free speech wherever they encounter it.

Republican Marsha Blackburn represents Tennessee in the United States Senate.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SEN. COTTON TOM

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SEN. MARSHA BLACKBURN