The culture of free speech and open discourse on America’s college campuses has shifted dramatically in recent years, with 2024’s pro-Palestine nationwide campus protests and the election of President Donald Trump being two prominent flashpoints.

The protests, which were often marked by acts of antisemitism against Jewish students, brought increased attention to the anti-free speech climate taking root at elite American colleges. The responses of student groups, faculty, and administrators to the protests revealed that many colleges have abandoned their traditional role as the foundation for the open exchange of ideas, honest debate, and tolerance for dissenting views in our society.

In response to these troubling trends, the Trump administration has aggressively sought to weed out campus policies that stifle free speech or discriminate against students. More than 60 colleges have faced Department of Education investigations for allegedly allowing antisemitic harassment. The administration has also frozen federal funding to prominent universities and reached negotiated settlements with others (like Columbia University) over allegations of political bias and unfair diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. One hopes that this push for accountability will promote a culture change in favor of free speech on campus.

Despite these efforts, a new study by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which surveyed 68,510 students across 257 colleges and universities this year, confirms that the culture of free expression on campus remains bleak.

Fifty-two percent of students surveyed said they are uncomfortable expressing their views on a controversial political topic during a class discussion, while 66% voiced discomfort doing so on social media. Shockingly, more than 1 in 3 students report regularly hiding their political beliefs from professors in search of better grades. And 34% say violence is an acceptable tactic to stop a controversial public speaker from appearing on campus. The recent assassination of Charlie Kirk is a horrific reflection of this attitude.

While these symptoms of free speech’s sorry state on campus remain clear to see, the causes of the malady itself have become deliberately obscured. Simply put, in the wake of the federal government’s crackdown on schools, many faculty and administrators have become more circumspect about touting their anti-speech policies in obvious ways. Ironically, anti-speech behavior has gone quiet and underground, making it more insidious and harder for outsiders to bring it to light without having access to class lectures, university databases, and students themselves.

In theory, student-run newspapers should be well-positioned to act as a check on campus misdeeds. For years, college students have depended on campus newspapers to supply accurate information about their world around them. Unfortunately, many traditional student publications have become captured by the same illiberal trends—groupthink, political correctness, and ideological conformity—as the faculty and staff themselves. Shirking their traditional watchdog role, many “independent” campus newspapers (actually run by liberal students and faculty advisors) decline to cover controversial issues, investigate legitimate criticisms of campus leadership, or give equal attention to right-of-center speakers or groups.

Fortunately, a new wave of truly independent, alternative student-run publications is now filling the gap at dozens of campuses nationwide. The Brown Spectator, Brown University’s alternative student newspaper, brought national attention to administrative waste through its “Bloat@Brown” investigative reporting this spring. The Columbia Sundial reported tirelessly on its campus’ anti-Israel protests, doing more than many national newspapers to raise awareness of growing antisemitism in the heart of Manhattan. The Stanford Review has uncovered the shocking academic espionage by the Chinese Communist Party happening in plain sight at Stanford University. Many other papers, often run by freethinking or right-of-center student journalists, are reporting on their campus and community in ways large and small.

We need more intrepid, courageous young journalists willing to follow the facts wherever they may lead, even if it means upsetting administrative leaders at their own colleges. That’s why our organization, The Fund for American Studies, just launched the Campus Transparency Fellowship, a new program to support campus journalists working to produce high-quality investigative journalism at their colleges. 

Over the next year, this program will support 18 student journalists around the country as they learn investigative techniques and focus on reporting critical campus issues, including identity-based and viewpoint discrimination, curricular malpractice, and administrative overreach. Fellows will publish investigative stories, break important news, and shed light on underreported activities—all while contributing to a campus climate that prioritizes free speech and open discourse over ideological groupthink.

There’s no better time to support young journalists seeking to promote truth on their campus. Today, our higher education system is in flux as at no other point in recent memory. What happens at America’s colleges matters far beyond the campus gates, shaping both our current political and cultural debates and our nation’s future leaders as they come of age. By supporting the next generation of courageous college journalists, we can help restore facts, truth, and objectivity to their rightful place on campus and throughout American society.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

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SCOTUS refuses Missouri’s SAPA case, fueling debate over state sovereignty, federal supremacy, and the limits of the Second Amendment.

The post Supreme Court Rejects Missouri Second Amendment Preservation Act appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

Prominent left-wing politicians, heads of state, and commentators reacted with vitriol, dismay, and apathy at the news this weekend that anti-socialist opposition leader María Corina Machado had won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

The post Left Seethes as Nobel Prize Goes to Venezuelan Anti-Socialist Freedom Fighter: ‘Could’ve Given It to Hitler’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Oscar-nominated actor James Woods unloaded on the left-wing activists in Portland who blocked traffic on the Burnside Bridge on Sunday, staging a “die-in” in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

The post James Woods Shreds Portland Leftists Blocking Roads During Anti-ICE ‘Nude Die-In’: ‘Mentally Ill Democrats’ appeared first on Breitbart.

The United States is demanding the release of Christian leaders arrested by China on Friday. Pastor Jin Mingri of the Zion Church was detained at his home Friday evening along […]

The post China Arrests Numerous Prominent Christians Leaders - Trump Admin Demands Release appeared first on The Western Journal.

A recent study by Anthropic AI, in collaboration with several academic institutions, has uncovered a startling vulnerability in AI language models, showing that it takes a mere 250 malicious documents to completely disrupt their output. Purposefully feeding malicious data into AI models is ominously referred to as a "poisoning attack."

The post Anthropic Study: AI Models Are Highly Vulnerable to ‘Poisoning’ Attacks appeared first on Breitbart.

After 738 days in Hamas captivity, the final 20 living hostages crossed the border from Gaza back into Israel. Images of fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, and sisters embracing their loved ones after two years of separation flooded social media.  

Bar Kupershtein, 23, cried as he embraced his mother. He was working at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas launched its terrorist attack on Israel killing 1,200 and taking another 251, including Kupershtein, hostage.  

Omri Miran, 48 and the oldest living hostage to return to Israel on Monday, was taken hostage on Oct. 7 in front of his wife and two young daughters. That day, Lishay Miran told her husband she loved him as Hamas terrorist took him away. After over two years, the family was finally reunited.  

The father of Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25, would not let his son go as they hugged for the first time in over two years.  

“Finally, our Evyatar is home,” the family of Evyatar David said in a public statement Monday. “From the first moment, we knew he would return, and here, after two years of suffering, he is here. Now a new journey of healing will begin for Evyatar and for us.”

About two months ago, Hamas released a horrifying propaganda video of a very thin David digging his own grave.

All former hostages received an initial medical evaluation before being airlifted to hospitals where they were reunited with their families.  

“After two harrowing years in darkness and captivity, 20 courageous hostages are returning to the glorious embrace of their families, and it is glorious,” President Donald Trump said before the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Monday.  

“We have confronted evil together, we have waged war together, and perhaps most beautifully of all, we have made peace together,” Trump said, speaking of the relationship between Israel and the U.S. “And this week, against all odds, we have done the impossible and brought our hostages home. So now we’re going to forge a future that is worthy of our heritage.”

In addition to the 20 living hostages now back in Israel, the remains of 28 hostages are expected to be returned to Israel in the near future. 

“After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today, the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land, and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity,” Trump said.  

Working with mediators from Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, U.S. officials were able to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a deal Wednesday night that is based on Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which includes the release of all hostages still in Gaza and the demilitarization of Hamas. The second phase of the ceasefire is expected to include negotiations for a permanent end to the war. 

“Donald Trump is the greatest friend that the state of Israel has ever had in the White House,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before the Knesset. 

Netanyahu has nominated Trump to receive the Israel Prize, Israel’s most prestigious award recognizing excellence in a particular field or significant contribution to Israel’s culture. Netanyahu has called for Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump was not awarded the 2025 prize but could receive it in 2026.  

“When others were weak, you were strong. When others were fearful, you were bold. When others abandon us, you stood by our side,” Netanyahu said to Trump before the Knesset. 

Trump praised the state of Israel in his hourlong speech and pledged continued friendship between Israel and the U.S.  

“The state of Israel is strong, and it will live and thrive forever. And that is why Israel will always remain a vital ally of the United States of America,” Trump said.  

“We are going to have hope, harmony, opportunity, and happiness here in the spiritual and geographic center of the entire world,” Trump continued, adding, “Israel, America, and all of the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, stronger, greater, and more prosperous than ever before.”  

Trump is traveling from Israel to Egypt Monday to participate in a Middle East peace ceremony.  

The post All Living Hostages Are Back in Israel appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gabby Giffords gun control group, Giffords, claims the public is less safe now that Publix Super Markets made clear its Florida stores will comply with Florida's open carry law.

The post Giffords Wrings Hands: Public Less Safe Because Publix Allows Open Carry appeared first on Breitbart.

Hamas released all 20 remaining living hostages on Monday as part of the Trump administration-brokered ceasefire that paused two years of war between Israel and the terror group. The deal […]

The post Breaking: All Living Hostages Freed, Israel Rejoices, Trump Welcomed with Enormous Beach Banner appeared first on The Western Journal.