FIRE Campus Scholar brings free speech workshops to Syracuse University

Nogaye Ndiaye is a senior at Syracuse University and a FIRE Campus Scholar

In the spring semester of my junior year at Syracuse University I was granted the opportunity to create a project surrounding free speech for my campus.

At first I was shocked to learn that Syracuse was one of the worst schools for free speech, ranking 132 of 205 surveyed schools, but I quickly realized that I’d always noticed a huge disconnect between students on campus. Students at Syracuse rarely speak to students who are different from them based on their race, economic status, or birthplace — and some don’t feel that they can, even if they want to. 

Through the Campus Scholars Program, I wanted to give students a chance to communicate openly and freely with students from other backgrounds. As I began my project, I noticed that the difficulty came not only from the differences between these groups of people, but also from the general inability to communicate effectively.

In a series of four workshops, I developed a number of activities and questions for students to work through that would spark healthy debate and expose them to different points of view. I taught students about the First Amendment and how it applies to them in different areas of their lives. I also crafted questions like, “How have you played a part in limiting free speech on campus?” and, “Why do you find yourself uncomfortable around people that do not share your same views?”

I was glad that I had the chance, with FIRE’s support, to reinforce the importance and value of exercising our First Amendment rights everywhere — not just within spaces where everyone already agrees with one another. 

Through these workshops, I was able to see people learn, think, and grow. Attendees debated and laughed with one another over dinner. People even reached out to me asking to receive a copy of the questions I posed in order to share them with others and continue to spark conversations on campus. 

Going into this project, I anticipated struggling to recruit a diverse audience. I feared that students who are white might be uncomfortable participating in the workshops due to fear of “saying the wrong thing.” Unfortunately, my concerns were correct. Many of my attendees were black or Hispanic students, and Syracuse is a predominantly white institution.

Syracuse University

Syracuse, NY

School Ranking

246 of 251

Speech Code

Yellow

Free Speech Climate

Overall score: 17

More Info

Despite my best efforts to conduct outreach — such as tabling in the Schine Student Center, sharing posters, and asking professors to share the event details with my classmates in class — the racial makeup for each of my workshops remained relatively homogenous. This highlighted for me the ways self-censorship and fear operate on my campus, and also got me thinking about how community members can make more of an effort to create a culture of free speech instead.

I still feel that my project was impactful and effective in strengthening the communication skills of the Syracuse University community members with whom I was able to connect. While Syracuse University does not rank so poorly on FIRE’s free speech rankings solely because of its students, the students definitely contribute. My project, and other projects like it, can be a way to turn our campus culture around and foster a better environment for free expression at Syracuse. 

It should be within a student’s right to have the space and opportunity to express themselves freely. I was glad that I had the chance, with FIRE’s support, to reinforce the importance and value of exercising our First Amendment rights everywhere — not just within spaces where everyone already agrees with one another.