The findings of the survey are super surprising. Despite the fact that 74% of students polled say that there is diversity on their campus, the findings show that two thirds of students reported incidents of harassment and use of racial slurs on campus in the last year.  For more on our findings read our full report on Prejudice on Campus.

This points to an unfortunate truth on college campuses and across the nation in general: diversity does not necessarily lead to tolerance. Although we live in a multicultural nation, people’s attitudes, perceptions, and tolerance of others’ differences can be downright intolerable.

This survey couldn’t have come at a more poignant time, as the country undertakes a presidential election that may indeed elect the first African-American president. Although most students said that race would not affect their vote, the number of non-white respondents who said that race did matter in their vote was double that of white respondents. These findings may contradict what some reporters are speculating might be a Bradley Effect, where white voters say they will vote for a black candidate, but on election day switch their vote to the white candidate.

This last Wednesday, on “The Daily Show with John Stewart”, John Stewart poked fun at these predictions by speculating that Barack Obama, who is of mixed race, may not know who to vote for come election day: “Your white half will all of a sudden decide, ‘I can’t do this’.” Obama certainly seemed amused at the idea that he might secretly wish to vote for McCain. If you want to see if the survey predicts your vote, read our report on Prejudice on Campus.

Kudos to all of you who filled out this groundbreaking survey, but don’t let your voice end here. Go out on November 4th and VOTE!

Institutions of higher education, like colleges and universities have a reputation of being promoters of free speech and ideas.

But FIRE, (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) has compiled a ‘red list’ of colleges that don’t respect the right to free speech.

For example, a professor at Brandeis University was found guilty of racial harassment after criticizing the use of the word “wetbacks” in his Latin American studies class.

At Valdosa State University, the president ordered that a student be expelled after he engaged in a peaceful protest against the proposed construction of a $30 million parking facility.

At John Hopkins University, a student was suspended for posting an ‘offensive’ Halloween party invitation on Facebook.

Tufts University declared that a conservative student newspaper, the Primary Source, violated the school’s harassment policy by publishing two satirical articles during the academic school year.

“By punishing political expression—the type of expression at the very core of the right to free speech—Tufts has shown that, in spite of its promises, it has no regard for its students’ fundamental rights.”

Are there certain instances in which the school should intervene or should students and professors be allowed to do and say whatever they want?

Are all of these examples the same or are there moments when freedom of speech should be restricted? 

Does  freedom of speech mean anything goes? What about racist and sexist slurs? Is there a difference if the comments come from teachers or students?

Where should colleges draw the line?

Where should we draw the line between school safety and a student’s right to privacy?

More and more schools are asking professors to watch out for students who could potentially pose a threat to campus safety and security.

After the shootings at Virginia Tech, the creative writing faculty put out a guide to help professors identify and respond to student’s fictional work on violence, murder and suicide. The University of New Mexico has also created a hot line to take calls from profs who have concerns about students’ writing that contains “credible threats of harm to self and others.” Similarly, Boston University has published a brochure, “Helping Students in Distress,” that advises faculty to watch for writing with themes of “hopelessness, social isolation, rage or despair.”

If a student looks ‘suspicious’ schools are even checking out their personal Facebook or MySpace page to see if there are signs of dangerous behavior.

But are these tactics ethical?

Do these measure infringe on a student’s right to privacy? And do they find a student guilty before they have committed a crime? In an age where everyone has a blog (including myself) do schools have the right to access this information?

Psychologists warn that it is very difficult to predict future violence. So is it right to come down on students who write crime or violent fiction? In fact, college students can have an active imagination and might not realize the implications of their words.

Also, is it fair to ask professors to scope out ‘dangerous’ students.? They certainly have not been trained to assess a work for signs of a troubled mind.

So what do you think, are student rights worth being stepped in the name of campus safety and security?