Student Union
US Campuses Debate Limits of Free Speech
![FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2017, photo, a fire set by demonstrators protesting a scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos burns on Sproul Plaza on the University of California, Berkeley campus.](https://gdb.voanews.com/3b926ed9-ed9f-4f8d-a7fc-9acc760e3527_cx0_cy6_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
Conservative writer Heather Mac Donald, invited to Claremont McKenna College to speak about law enforcement policy in black neighborhoods, addressed an auditorium of less than 20.
Outside the hall, throngs of angry students stood against the door, chanting and linking arms, refusing to let anyone in to hear her speak. With access to the talk blocked, organizers livestreamed her event. Afterward, she slipped out a back door with police escort.
At the University of California-Berkeley, a planned speech by alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos resulted in broken windows. At Middlebury College, the controversial social scientist Charles Murray was hounded by students as he left his talk early.
And at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in February, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was interrupted by dozens of students yelling “shame,” as he gave a lecture about safe spaces, free speech and political correctness.
U.S. college campuses have long been a place for debate and public demonstrations, and some worry the push by students to shut down speakers they disagree with is a setback for the free speech protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution.
A legislator in Wisconsin has responded by introducing a bill to punish people who try to shut down these events.
The Campus Free Speech Act would require University of Wisconsin campuses to suspend and expel students who interrupt invited speakers. Representative Jesse Kremer, a Republican and the bill's author, says hecklers should not be allowed to usurp speakers.
“Repeatedly, we've seen students shouted down and silenced by those in disagreement,” Kremer said in a statement. This bill “will end the unconstitutional heckler’s ‘veto’ and create a behavioral shift on campus.”
If voted into law, students would face discipline for taking part in demonstrations that “interfere with the rights of others to engage in or listen” to invited speakers. The bill outlines interferences including, “violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud or disorderly conduct.” A third violation would be grounds for expulsion.
But some legal observers say the proposed bill itself runs afoul of constitutional protections.
“The language in the bill that says a student can be penalized for boisterous conduct … is too broad to meet constitutional muster,” said Lata Nott, executive director of the First Amendment Center at the Newseum Institute in Washington.
John Behling, UW System Board of Regents president, lauded the new legislation as a way to protect speakers like Shapiro. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who appointed Behling, also voiced support for the bill.
The “Board of Regents strongly believe in the freedom of expression, and we want to do more to ensure every voice is heard,” Behling said in a statement.
Critics argue that the bill will end up stifling free speech on campus.
“It amazes me that Wisconsin Republicans can support a bill aimed at protecting free speech by limiting free speech,” said state Rep. David Crowley, a Democrat from Milwaukee. The bill is “aimed at limiting exposure to different opinions and creating extreme, unwarranted and unnecessary punishments for exercising your right to protest.”
“When you try to protect free expression by limiting free expression, I think the result would be less free expression for everybody,” Nott said.
She said she would advise Walker to not sign the bill.
Republicans defended the bill, drawing a distinction between disruptive behavior and first amendment-protected protest, which they said would not be banned.
The bill is modeled on legislation drafted by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute, a right-wing think-tank named after Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona who died in 1998.
Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Utah have similar laws already on the books curbing campus speech. A number of states are considering similar bills, including Illinois, Michigan, Texas and California.
"The bill is designed to prevent the sorts of belligerent, violent protests we've seen on some college campuses, including Wisconsin," said Jim Manley, a senior attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
He said the legislation strengthens the First Amendment rights of protesters because it does not allow cities or universities to designate specific “free speech zones.”
“The bill is designed to protect free expression broadly for both protesters and invited speakers,” Manley said.
“Disrupting free speech is unconstitutional,” Republican Rep. Dave Murphy said on the assembly floor. “Disruption is not speech. Disruption isn't protest. Disruption is theft. Theft of another person's right to speak and be heard.”
An earlier version of the story incorrectly reported who invited MacDonald to speak. Claremont McKenna College's research institutes, the Rose Institute and the Salvatori Center, invited MacDonald.
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- By VOA News
International students have options to pay for grad school
![Children play outside Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles, campus in Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-c0a6-08dcc2504f9d_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. News & World Report tackles the challenges of paying for grad school as an international student with this story giving tips on paying for school. Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By Tracy Liu
Economics, tensions blamed for Chinese students shifting from US to Australia, Britain
![FILE - Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews, May 2, 2012, in Beijing.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-4fea-08dc96d3d82c_cx0_cy5_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. universities are welcoming international students as the academic year begins. But while the total number of foreign students is steadily growing, the top sending country, China, is showing signs of leveling out or shrinking.
Industry analysts say the negative trend is mainly due to higher costs amid China’s struggling economy, with a growing number of students going to less expensive countries like Australia and Britain, and tense ties between Washington and Beijing.
The number of foreign students studying in the U.S. in 2022-23 passed 1 million for the first time since the COVID pandemic, said Open Doors, an information resource on international students and scholars.
While the U.S. saw a nearly 12% total increase year-on-year for that period, the number of international students from China, its top source, fell by 0.2% to 289,526.
That’s 600 fewer students than the 2021-22 academic year, when their numbers dropped by nearly 9%. The COVID pandemic saw Chinese student numbers drop in 2020-21 by nearly 15%, in line with the world total drop.
While it’s not yet clear if the drop is a leveling out or a fluctuating decline, analysts say China’s struggling economy and the high cost of studying in the U.S. are the main reasons for the fall in student numbers.
Vincent Chen, a Chinese study abroad consultant based in Shanghai, said although most of his clients are still interested in studying in the U.S., there is a clear downward trend, while applicants for Anglophone universities in Australia and Britain have been increasing.
"If you just want to go abroad, a one-year master's degree in the U.K. is much cheaper,” Chen said. “Many people can't afford to study in the U.S., so they have to settle for the next best thing."
Data from the nonprofit U.S. group College Board Research shows that in the 2023-24 academic year, the average tuition and fees for a U.S. private college four-year education increased 4% to $41,540 compared with the previous academic year.
The British Council said three to four years of undergraduate tuition in Britain starts as low as $15,000.
The number of Chinese students in Britain was 154,260 in 2022-23, according to the U.K. Higher Education Statistics Agency, HESA, up from 121,145 in the 2018/19 academic year.
Australia’s Home Affairs office said in the 2023-24 program year, China was the top source foreign country for new student visa grants at 43,389, up slightly (1.5%) from the previous year.
Chen said Chinese state media's negative portrayal of the United States and concerns about discrimination have also contributed to the shift.
Bruce Zhang, a Chinese citizen who received his master's degree in Europe after studying in China, told VOA Mandarin he had such an incident occur to him after he was admitted to a U.S. university’s Ph.D. program.
When he entered Boston's Logan International Airport last year, Zhang said customs officers questioned him for more than an hour about his research, and if it had any links to the military, and took his computer and mobile phone for examination.
"Fortunately, I had heard that U.S. customs might be stringent in inspecting Chinese students, so I had relatively few study-related data and documents on my personal computer," he said.
Zhang was allowed to enter the U.S. for his studies in materials science, but the questioning left him so rattled that he has encouraged other Chinese to study elsewhere.
Cui Kai, a study abroad consultant in Massachusetts told VOA Mandarin that experiences like Zhang’s or worse happen for a reason.
"Students who were questioned or their visas were revoked at the customs are usually those who completed their undergraduate studies in China and come to the U.S. for a master's or doctoral degree in a sensitive major," said Cui.
Former President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10043 in June 2020, prohibiting visas for any Chinese student who “has been employed by, studied at, or conducted research at or on behalf of, an entity in the PRC that implements or supports the PRC's “military-civil fusion strategy.”
The U.S. says China has been using students and scholars to gain access to key technology and, under Proclamation 10043, revoked more than 1,000 visas issued to Chinese nationals and has denied thousands more.
Critics say the policy is costly to the U.S. and is encouraging Chinese students to look to European and other universities.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
- By VOA News
Duolingo report details the reality of Gen Z international students
![FILE - A Dartmouth Athletics banner hangs outside Alumni Gymnasium on the Dartmouth University campus in Hanover, NH, March 5, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-e46b-08dcc24fe52c_cx0_cy9_cw0_w250_r1_s.jpg)
A report by Duolingo takes a look at the experiences of Gen Z international students studying in the U.S., Australia and the U.K, The Pie reports.
The report, the site says, debunks "characterizations of them as 'tech-obsessed, attention-deficit and self-centered'" and highlights "their emerging role in shaping global politics and economics."
Read the full story here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
School with the lowest costs for international students
![FILE - A newly printed U.S. dollar bill is shown at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on Dec. 8, 2022.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-5bb0-08dba10bf4ed_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers and came up with a list of 20 U.S. colleges and universities with annual total costs at or below $20,184. Check out these best bargains for international students here. (August 2024)
- By VOA News
How to make the most of schools' international student services
![FILE - Students walk down Jayhawk Boulevard, the main street through the main University of Kansas campus, in Lawrence, Kansas, April 12, 2024.](https://gdb.voanews.com/01000000-0aff-0242-b8af-08dca145cc99_w250_r1_s.jpg)
U.S. colleges and universities offer a variety of services for international students.
U.S. News & World Report takes a look at them and details how to best use them. Read the article here. (June 2024)