US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he would sign an order requiring colleges to support free speech or risk losing federal research funding. (Source: Reuters)President Donald Trump’s proposed executive order to protect free speech on college campuses follows a growing chorus of complaints that the nation’s universities attempt to silence conservative voices.
Trump on Saturday said he would sign an order requiring colleges to support free speech or risk losing federal research funding. He highlighted the case of a conservative demonstrator who was punched at the University of California, Berkeley, last month.
Some on the right say colleges limit conservative voices by disinviting speakers or allowing heckling. Critics counter that conservatives are making protecting free speech a partisan fight.
Jerry Falwell Jr, president of the Christian Liberty University in Virginia, supports the proposal, but Robert Zimmer of the University of Chicago said in a campus email it would be a “grave error”.
