On Monday, The New Guard attended the exclusive premier of Rob Montz’s new documentary about the suppression of free speech on college campuses at an event hosted by America’s Future Foundation. The short film that specifically highlights the culture of censorship that has breaded at Brown University was released to the public today.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gives Brown a red rating for speech codes, meaning that the school has “at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.” The university is constantly being featured in the news for its students push to suppress freedom of expression, and the administrations constant submissiveness.
“Elite colleges like Brown train the people that are going to run this country,” said Rob Montz, the creator of the the documentary and a Brown alumnus. “Failing to properly train them compromises us all.”
In the documentary, Montz also noted that this trend and the student’s behavior is “an addiction to indignation.” When asked to comment further on this he said, “I think students learn that being a victim can be a source of power on college campuses — that there’s a premium put on grievance.”
While much of the short film focuses on the ridiculous actions of students to limit their own personal freedoms, a section of the documentary compares the students behavior with that of former Brown University president, Ruth Simmons. After David Horowitz took out an ad in the university’s newspaper criticizing reparations for slavery, students who found the view offensive stole all the copies of the paper.
When this happened, President Simmons insisted that Horowitz come to campus to share his views. Simmons even sat in the front row during his lecture. She summed up perfectly what our nation’s colleges should be fostering when she said, “Learning is the antithesis of comfort.”
It’s important for people across the country realize how rampant the climate of censorship is on college campuses today. This powerful feature is exactly the sort of response that all free speech advocates, not just conservatives, should use to combat those who wish to deny our First Amendment rights. This is one step in the right direction.
