2023-2024 Class of Fellows
Institutional Dismissal and Betrayal in the Name of Free Speech: Student Stories of Reporting Bias
ABOUT THE RESEARCH
Struggles with free speech are a key issue for administrators and frontline staff responding to bias incidents in higher education. This narrative study, which closely examined four students’ experiences of reporting identity-based bias incidents to their college or university reveals the ways that ideas about free speech also pose significant challenges for marginalized students who are victims of bias incidents. By telling rich stories of the students’ experiences and offering analysis across the four cases, this study describes how reporting bias incidents and being met with rationales of free speech resulted in overwhelmingly negative experiences both during and following the reporting process. This report concludes with considerations for practice that aim to push administrators to consider more expansively what accountability in situations of identity-based harm might look like, both for those harmed and for those causing the harm.
About the Fellow
![](https://freespeechcenter.universityofcalifornia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Robinson-5.png)
Ashley Robinson
Watch this video to learn more about Ashley's project
Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Fairleigh Dickinson University
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