Wednesday Oct. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Johnassan Hall, a co-sponsored Pizza and Politics event was put on by the Political Science Department and the Journalism and Media Studies (JAMS) department. 

While Pizza and Politics is a usual event on campus, this one was a special one, organized in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death in Utah, Jimmy Kimmel’s brief cancellation and people losing their jobs for jokes and/or comments made online about Kirk’s death. The event’s intention: a lengthy discussion between students and faculty about free speech, what it means and its importance in a functioning democracy.

The event opened with remarks from faculty in both departments, setting the stage and giving the nearly 60 students in attendance their brief thoughts on the subject. Once the opening remarks were concluded, everyone gathered in their small groups to talk at length about free speech. If the conversations winded down, each table was provided with discussion questions. 

Additionally, for students who may not have felt entirely comfortable expressing their thoughts, the Linfield Review had a brief, anonymous survey to collect their thoughts. All quotes are anonymous by design as they were gathered via the survey, but did come from students who attended the event.

The first question on the survey was how do students feel about free speech generally, and there were a wide range of opinions. 

“I like it, obviously but I do not enjoy listening to people say things that are objectively wrong. I still think they deserve free speech,” one student said. “But I think I also deserve free speech in the way that I can make it known that they’re wrong.”  

Some of the respondents expressed they felt free speech was essential to a thriving democratic government. 

Another student took the question in a different direction, choosing to talk about the importance of independent journalism. 

“Independent journalism is critical to a functioning society because it does not self-censor and isn’t afraid to cover more controversial topics or subjects the rich folks who control a lot of news media don’t want to talk about,” they said. “The problem is that most old people watch legacy media that is firmly in the pockets of rich owners, while young people listen to TikTok reporters who seem a lot more click-baity to get noticed by the algorithm.”

On the subject of how comfortable students felt expressing their opinion on campus, the majority of the respondents felt more or less comfortable. Only one student said they outright did not feel comfortable.

“Hell no (I am a republican),” they said. 

Another respondent echoed this sentiment. 

“I’ve been told by some that they feel pressured to suppress their own beliefs or go against them by faculty conduct. Some have been put in situations where they are forced to write or speak on topics that they disagree with (i.e. gun control, abortion, politicians, etc.),” they said. “Students feel like they can’t speak out against it in fear of getting a bad grade or some kind of punishment academically.”

Which was a striking response. How does an outright rejection of comfortability reflect on the kind of environment Linfield is? How could there be a push to make students of one political affiliation or another feel more comfortable? 

In the final section of the survey asking for any final thoughts, one student had a lot to say. 

“I feel as though the two sides are just anti-minority vs we shouldn’t be mean for no reason. I’m biased being a radical leftist, but I want to be able to respectfully debate things that are worth debating, not just widening an already large gap that’s reinforced by hate,” they said. “If the person I’m debating doesn’t even accept my status as a living, breathing human being that’s deserving of respect (and vice versa), then how can we even get past an introduction?”

One of the last respondents took a different perspective, focusing on the friend group. 

“When you’re talking about socially or informally it kind of depends on the group that you’re in, like, my very left-leaning friend group would be kind of weirded out by a conservative opinion,” they said. 

Ultimately, students were unified in free speech being important and worth preserving on campus. The entire event outside of the survey was cordial and polite. The students and faculty exchanged ideas, disagreed and of course, ate some pizza.