Two years ago, on April 18, 2024, New York Police Department officers arrested 108 students from Columbia University’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” sparking a wave of campus chaos that swept the country and the world.
What followed was one of the darkest chapters in American higher education: Jewish students were abused and harassed, swastikas were painted on buildings, American flags were burned, and more than 3,000 people were arrested for trespassing, vandalism and worse.
While it led to widespread calls for campus reform—and fierce efforts by the Trump administration to hold universities accountable—data suggests that the period left a deep scar on university life, particularly in a persistent culture of fear and self-censorship.
FIRE’s 2026 Free Speech Survey shows that 91% of students now self-censor conversations with classmates at least some of the time. Israel and Palestine are the most feared topics for open dissent, just ahead of abortion and transgender rights. At two leading universities, 88% of students now pretend to be more progressive than they actually are.
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Fear of social reprisals is driving this trend, but it is undoubtedly amplified by acts of violence against conservatives, including the murder of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk last year. Support for such acts continues to grow. The FIRE survey shows that one in three students now believe that violence can sometimes be justified to stop a speaker, an increase of 70% since 2022.
The fear also extends to classrooms: roughly nine in ten students self-censor conversations with teachers. There is little surprise as to why. In 1989, liberal professors outnumbered conservatives roughly two to one. By mid-2010 the ratio was five to one. Today, in Yale’s humanities departments alone, Democrats outnumber Republicans 72 to 1. The few conservative faculty that remain often hide their political views to keep their jobs.
As one University of Oklahoma student put it, “Why should I disagree with my professors? [sic] strong and open political opinions while he is the one who judges everything?”
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This self-censorship hurts everyone, not least progressives. Protecting ideas from challenge makes both the ideas and those who nurture them vulnerable.
The biggest victim is America itself. When young people spend four formative years practicing self-censorship, they don’t abandon the habit upon graduation. They apply it in journalism, business, law, medicine and their lives as citizens.
Today we see all around us what happens when elites – in universities and beyond – use fear in an attempt to impose ideological conformity on the country. Trust disappears, the discourse hardens and our people no longer understand each other. Society is starting to crumble.
While the post-Gaza campus climate is tragic for America, hope remains. The Trump administration’s resistance is paying off. DEI programs are being phased out and many universities have adopted institutional neutrality policies that prevent them from taking positions on political and social issues.
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But universities have more to do. Much more. Their goal should be to recapture the vision of Mortimer Adler, who helped pioneer academic freedom standards at the University of Chicago. He believed that the purpose of higher education was “to develop free people who know how to use their minds and think for themselves.”
The fear also extends to classrooms: roughly nine in ten students self-censor conversations with teachers.
This requires the restoration of true intellectual diversity within the faculty. Universities would also be wise to get a sense of what students actually believe, for example through anonymous surveys, and then publicly commit to defending all positions. Alumni and donors can also play a role by linking support to free research statistics.
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Above all, we need the higher education system to understand its role in the formation of virtue, especially that greatest civic virtue: courage. Without this we cannot speak or defend the truth, maintain our integrity when it is unpopular, or foster the habits of mind necessary for self-government.
The protests in Gaza have proven that fear is contagious on campuses. But that can also be courage. Our universities must decide which ones they want to teach.
Rob Noel is a speechwriter and president of the Washington Writers Network.
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