Student Union
- By Pete Musto
More US College Students Choose Diversity Over Free Speech
Paula Molina-Acosta’s concerns for her own safety on her college campus first started to grow over a year ago.
Molina-Acosta is a student at the University of Maryland, or UMD, in College Park, Maryland - a Washington suburb. In the fall of 2016, students began seeing the words “Build the Wall” written around the school grounds. This was a term then-presidential candidate Donald Trump used during the 2016 election to discuss security on the United States-Mexico border. Molina-Acosta, who was born in Colombia, South America, says for students like her the words feel like a threat.
Then in March 2017, a student reported seeing a noose hanging in the official housing of one of the school’s social organizations. Nooses have historically been used as weapons against African Americans, and are still seen as a symbol of racial violence.
Two months later, an African American student visiting from Bowie State University was murdered on the UMD campus. A white UMD student suspected of the attack now faces charges of a hate crime.
In light of these events, Molina-Acosta says she wants her school to do more to limit speech and actions she says are hateful. The challenge, she notes, is balancing these limits with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which protects Americans’ right to speak freely.
“We all have a right to … write or say what we want to, as long as it doesn’t incite violence,” Molina-Acosta told VOA. “And, of course that right has to be protected. But at the same time, ideologies like that are … tied to … racism … which is connected to inciting violence.”
Diversity vs. free speech
A new study looks at exactly the issues Molina-Acosta is weighing. The Gallup-Knight foundation study finds that a majority of today’s college students in the U.S. value diversity more than protecting free speech.
Released in March, the study is a shared effort from the research company Gallup and the non-profit organization the Knight Foundation. In 2017, the two groups asked over 3,000 college students from across the country about how much they valued diversity and free speech.
One major question was: “If you had to choose, which do you think is more important?” About 53 percent of surveyed students chose “a diverse and inclusive society” over “protecting free speech rights.”
Brandon Busteed, executive director for education and workforce development at Gallup, offers a number of reasons why students may value diversity over free speech. For one, the college student population in the U.S. has become increasingly diverse. Busteed points out that the majority of white students chose free speech over diversity.
However, Busteed argues that the preference for diversity over free speech is not the only important point to come from this study. He notes that 56 percent of the surveyed students feel that protecting free speech is important to a democracy. And 52 percent say the same about including and protecting different kinds of people.
So it is not like college students today place little value on free speech, Busteed says. But in some situations, students might feel they have to choose between the two.
“If you look at the questions we asked about them independently, they value both of them very highly,” he said. “But … if you value inclusivity and diversity, and somebody is saying hate speech about, let’s say African Americans students … now you’ve got two things you believe in that are in … conflict with one another.”
Free speech vs political correctness
Still, Nico Perrino finds the results of this study troubling. He is the director of communications for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which fights to protect free speech on college campuses.
Perrino says the movement to defend free speech has long been challenged by another movement: political correctness. The term relates to the belief that words or ideas minority groups might feel are insulting or discriminatory should be avoided. Critics of political correctness say efforts not to offend can be carried too far.
Many American college students identified with the politically correct, or PC, movement back in the 1990s, says Perrino. But he says the rise of groups like Black Lives Matter has brought renewed attention to it. The group campaigns on issues such as police violence against African Americans, as well as equality and understanding of the African American experience.
Perrino argues it is the job of universities to welcome all kinds of ideas, especially ones that some people might find problematic. Otherwise students may not be able to fully examine those ideas and possibly solve the problems surrounding them.
Also, diversity not only means including different races and ethnicities. It means accepting people who think differently from you, he says.
Perrino says he has no problem with debating or peacefully protesting. But he worries that limiting hate speech may become a form of violence itself. What is more, he says, trying to silence speakers who express hateful views may accidentally result in supporting them.
For example, Milo Yiannopoulos is a writer known for supporting ideas that many find offensive. In his speaking and writing he has attacked Muslims, feminists, people whose appearance he does not like, and many others. In February 2017, he was supposed to hold an event at the University of California, Berkeley, but the event was cancelled following violent protests. In the weeks after, Yiannopoulos’s book became the top seller on the website Amazon.
Perrino says students must understand that the U.S. Supreme Court has never provided a legal definition of hate speech. Therefore schools cannot limit a person’s speech, even if it makes another person feel unsafe. And that is with good reason, he says.
“The reason … is … the question ‘Who decides?’” Perrino said. “Who decides what speech is allowed and who decides what speech is not allowed?’ In the era of Donald Trump, if you asked he and his administration to define what hate speech would be, my suspicion is it would be groups like Black Lives Matter. It would not be, for example, the Milo Yiannopouloses of the world.”
Paula Molina-Acosta of UMD agrees that open discussion between people who hold opposing beliefs is important, and violence is never the answer. Given the choice, she says protecting free speech is more important than diversity.
But Molina-Acosta does wonder if there is middle ground between the two sides of the issue. She admits that students may not be fully right in their aim of banning everything they consider to be hate speech. After all, she is only 19 years old and doesn’t have all the answers, she says. But she also believes the next time someone draws an image related to Nazism, as was the case at UMD last October, university officials should take action.
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Payments to college athletes to range from a few dollars to more than $1M under settlement
Thousands of former college athletes in the U.S. will be eligible for payments ranging from a few dollars to more than a million under the $2.78 billion antitrust settlement agreed to by the NCAA and five power conferences, a deal that also paves the way for schools to directly compensate athletes while attempting regulate payments from boosters.
Details of the sprawling plan were filed Friday in federal court in the Northern District of California, a little more than two months after the framework of an agreement was announced. The deal must still be approved by a judge.
"College athletes will finally be able to share in the billions of dollars their compelling stories and dynamic performances have generated for their schools, conferences, and the NCAA," the filing said. "This is nothing short of a seismic change to college sports following more than four years of hard-fought victories in this case."
The full term sheet includes guidelines on roster caps for individual sports that will replace scholarship limits; how the new financial payments will be monitored and enforced to ensure compliance by schools; how third-party payments to athletes will be regulated; and how nearly $3 billion in damages will be doled out over the next 10 years.
Those payouts will vary drastically and are determined by sport played, when, how long and what conference an athlete competed in. While Division I athletes across all sports will be eligible to collect damages, the majority of damages is expected to go to football and basketball players from power conferences because those leagues and teams generate most of the revenue that comes from billion-dollar media rights contracts.
The deal covers three antitrust cases — including the class-action lawsuit known as House vs. the NCAA — that challenged NCAA compensation rules dating to 2016. The plaintiffs claimed NCAA rules denied thousands of athletes the opportunity to earn millions of dollars off the use of their names, images and likenesses.
The NCAA lifted its ban on athletes earning money through endorsement and sponsorship deals in 2021.
The agreement does not settle the issue of whether college athletes should be deemed employees, but it does include language that would suggest the deal would be subject to change if "a change in law or circumstances permits collective bargaining."
The NCAA and college sports leaders continue to plead for help from Congress in the form of a federal law that would supersede state laws and allow the association and conferences to self govern without fear of future antitrust litigation.
"This settlement is an important step forward for student-athletes and college sports, but it does not address every challenge," the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Southeastern Conference and NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a joint statement. "The need for federal legislation to provide solutions remains. If Congress does not act, the progress reached through the settlement could be significantly mitigated by state laws and continued litigation."
While that help still seems unlikely to come soon — especially with a presidential election months away — college sports leaders hope the settlement can provide some certainty for schools and finally stem the constant legal attacks on its antiquated model of amateurism.
Paying athletes
The NCAA and conferences have agreed to amend their rules to permit a landmark compensation system that allows schools to share up to about $21 million in athletic revenues with their athletes annually, starting in 2025.
The NCAA and conferences will be permitted to make rules that prevent schools from circumventing the cap.
That number is derived from taking 22% of the average revenue generated through media rights contracts, tickets and other sources by power conference schools. The agreement will create an audit system that allows plaintiffs to monitor athletic revenue, which is expected to rise in the coming years as new media rights agreements kick in for conferences and the College Football Playoff.
Athletes are projected to receive $1.5 billion to $2 billion annually.
All athletes will be eligible to receive the new financial benefits, but each school will be permitted to determine how they want to divvy up the money among sports. How exactly Title IX gender equity rules apply is still unclear and will require federal clarification. How schools comply with Title IX will be the responsibility of each institution.
Scholarships and rosters
Replacing scholarship limits with roster caps could mean even more athletic scholarship opportunities in Division I.
Most notably, major college football teams will now be permitted to have 105 player on scholarship instead of the current 85, though schools will no longer be required to give full scholarships to every football player.
Partial scholarships have been used in some sports for years, but will now be permitted in all.
The roster caps for baseball (34), softball (25) and volleyball (18) will also allow for a significant jump in the number of scholarships schools can provide in those sports, though schools will not be required to meet the cap.
NIL deals and oversight
NCAA rules have been tweaked to allow schools to be more involved in providing NIL opportunities for college athletes, but they will still be allowed to strike deals with third parties.
However, athletes will be required to report deals with third parties that surpass $600 to an outside clearinghouse.
The NCAA is also creating a public database that it hopes will allow athletes to assess fair market value.
Booster-funded NIL collectives have become a common way athletes are compensated, but now those deals will be subject to review through an arbitration process to determine if it is for a "valid business purpose," according to the agreement.
Violations could lead to eligibility penalties for athletes and sanctions for schools.
Damage payments
The plaintiffs in the House case are responsible for doling out damages. Included in Friday's filing was a chart breaking down the categories of eligible athletes along with four different types of payouts they could be in line to receive.
According to the plaintiffs, about 19,000 power conference football players and men's basketball players will be in line to receive an average of $91,000, with payments ranging from $15,000 to $280,000 just for what is referred to broadcast name, image and likeness.
Some of those same athletes could also be in line for tens of thousands of dollars more related to lost opportunities to earn NIL money while in college and what is deemed by the plaintiffs as pay-for-play. Plaintiffs' lawyers say a few athletes will be eligible to receive upward of $1 million.
Next steps
Plaintiffs' attorneys say they will file a motion for preliminary approval and — if granted — a public website will go up in about two months where former college athletes can determine how much they are eligible to receive.
Still, the settlement is months away from final approval. There will be an opportunity for athletes who are members of the plaintiffs' class to object to the settlement and ask to be excluded. Already one school, Houston Christian, has objected — though the judge denied its request to intervene.
"We are moving forward in the right direction by giving college athletes what they have EARNED & DESERVE which has been long overdue," said Sedona Prince, a college basketball player now at TCU and one of the plaintiffs in the House case. "We still have a long way to go and I pray athletes ask more questions and demand more answers from the leaders at their schools, conferences and the NCAA."
Survey: US college students score low in civic literacy
A recent survey commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that college student in the United States are lacking in civic education.
Writing for Ed Source, Emma Gallegos reports that most of those surveyed don’t know the terms lengths for members of Congress, and a third couldn’t identify the speaker of the House of Representatives. (July 2024)
Tips for first-year international students in the US
Book your flights right away, get a U.S. phone plan, make sure you have linens for your dorm and attend orientation – that’s some of the advice international students have for first-year college students coming from abroad.
U.S. News & World Report compiled helpful tips for students studying in the United States for the first time. (July 2024)
Survey: Social integration, career prep are important to international students
A recent survey of international students in the United States found that before starting school, they were concerned about personal safety, making friends and feeling homesick.
Inside Higher Ed reports that international students want specialized orientations, peer connections, career preparation and job placement to help make their college experiences successful. (July 2024)
US advisory council ends Nigeria visit, signs student exchange deal
Members of a U.S. presidential advisory council have approved a student exchange deal between an American college and a Nigerian university as part of the council's effort to strengthen collaboration on education, health, entrepreneurship and development between Africa and Africans living abroad.
The council also visited a health facility supported by the United States Agency for International Development in the capital.
Nigerian authorities and visitors chatted with members of the U.S President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement as they toured a healthcare facility in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, on the last day of the council's three-day visit to Abuja and Lagos.
The facility is one of many supported by the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to improve the management of childhood illnesses, family planning, immunization and delivery.
The tour was part of the council's effort to promote African diaspora-led investments in technology entrepreneurship, education and healthcare delivery.
"They're doing a phenomenal job there, it really gave us a sense of what the healthcare system is in Nigeria," said Deniece Laurent-Mantey, executive director of the advisory council. "This is our first trip as a council to the continent and we chose Nigeria for a reason — the diaspora in Nigeria is very active, very influential, and they're really a source of strength when it comes to our U.S.-Africa policy. And so for us coming to Nigeria was very intentional."
The council was created by President Joe Biden in September to improve collaboration between Africa and its diaspora in terms of economic and social development.
Akila Udoji, manager of the Primary Healthcare Centre of Karu, said officials in Nigeria were pleased that the council members were able to visit.
"We're happy that they have seen what the money they have given to us to work with has been used to do, because they have been able to assist us in capacity-building, trainings, equipment supply and the makeover of the facility," Udoji said.
Earlier, the council signed a deal for a student exchange program between Spelman College in the southern U.S. city of Atlanta and Nigeria's University of Lagos.
Laurent-Mantey said education exchanges are one of the council's top priorities.
"In Lagos, we had the president of Spelman College — she's also a member of our council — she signed an agreement with the University of Lagos to further education exchange programs in STEM and creative industries between those two universities," Laurent-Mantey said. "And I think for us it's very important, because Spelman College is a historically Black university, and so here we are promoting the importance of collaboration between African Americans and Africans."
In March, the advisory council adopted its first set of recommendations for the U.S. president, including the student exchange initiative, advocating for more U.S. government support for Africa, climate-focused initiatives, and improving U.S. visa access for Africans.
The council met with Nigerian health and foreign affairs officials during the visit before leaving the country on Wednesday.
