“Freedom of thought and speech on the American campus are under attack!”

“Freedom of thought and speech on the American campus are under attack!” Former United States Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, claimed in 2016 and many agree, do you? According to the Alliance Defending Freedom Blog, “Why the University Must be a Marketplace of Ideas,” “Universities are not simply places for students to prepare for work in our economic marketplace. They’re also a place where college students learn how to interact with others in the ‘marketplace of ideas’– where they can encounter differing ideas and beliefs through discussion and debate…However, these virtues are often not as highly prized on campus as they should be. From unconstitutional speech zones to discriminatory club policies to even violence… Whether it be by college administrators, faculty, or the students themselves, there have been attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) to silence speech.” As Jeff Herbert describes in his TEDxTalk, “The Universities as a Marketplace of Ideas,” speakers invited to college campuses around the country have been threatened, ridiculed and cancelled. (See a comprehensive list of disinvited college speakers from 1998 – 2022 at FIRE’s (Foundation for Individual Right’s and Expression) disinvitation database Here.)No longer, a Marketplace of Ideas, campuses become Safe Spaces where students are sheltered from topics, conversations, and people that are deemed to be dangerous. The goal may be to condemn hate speech and the ideologies at the foundation of it, but the result, as Adam Carolla explores in his 2019 documentary, “No Safe Spaces,” is a society wherein argumentation and debate, the backbone of democracy, does not exist.

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Clearly state your claim, whether you affirm or negate the resolution: “The University Must be a Marketplace of Ideas.” (1 clear sentence)
Provide ONE reason for your claim (1 clear sentence)
Include evidence from one or more of the resources above or from another source to substantiate the reason and support your claim (3 -4 sentences that clearly support the reason)
Create a correlation between the claim and the support with a warrant. (3 – 4 sentences that explain how the support relates to the claim)
FOR EXAMPLE:
Claim (1 clear sentence): Recent tax cuts should be abandoned

Reason (1 clear sentence): ….because they only benefit the rich.

Support (3 -4 sentences that clearly support the reason): Statistics show that the majority of the tax cuts are targeted at upper middle class and upper class families, not poor families and individuals. (Provide the source)

Warrant (3 – 4 sentences that explain how the support relates to the claim): Tax cuts that only benefit the rich are unfair.

FOR EXAMPLE:
Claim (1 clear sentence): The Civil War was caused by slavery.

Reason (1 clear sentence): …because the Northern states rejected the Southern states reliance on slavery.

Support (3 -4 sentences that clearly support the reason): the recorded debates in newspapers and state legislatures in the North focused on the South’s reliance on slavery, not economics, etc. (Provide the source)

Warrant (3 – 4 sentences that explain how the support relates to the claim): The record of debates in newspapers and legislatures is an accurate guide to determining the cause of conflict.