71% of students say they'd report a professor for 'wrongthink'

Seventy-one percent of college students say a professor who expresses "offensive" ideas should be reported to the university, according to the 2024 American College Student Freedom, Progress and Flourishing Survey, write Greg Lukianoff and Adam Goldstein.

One third of students want professors to drop uncomfortable readings and one quarter want them to avoid uncomfortable discussion topics, they write.

For example, "a third of students said a professor should be reported for saying there was no evidence of anti-black bias in police shootings," they write. That happened to Harvard economist Roland Fryer who published a study of police violence that said, in officer-involved shootings, there were “no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account.”

A quarter said a professor should be reported for saying Covid vaccinations shouldn't be required, while 14 percent wanted to report professors who said not getting vaccinated is irresponsible.

"More than one in five students said a professor should be reported for saying that biological sex is a scientific fact," they write. This happened to Carole Hooven at Harvard.

"Just under one in five students said a professor should be reported for saying that affirmative action is doing more harm than good." Cardiologist Norman Wang had his teaching privileges revoked for publishing a research paper on that question, and geophysicist Dorian Abbot was disinvited from an MIT lecture for having expressed that view in an op-ed.

On the flip side, 14 percent would report a professor who accused affirmative action opponents of perpetuating white privilege.

In addition, 56 percent of students would report a classmate for saying something they thought was offensive.

"The proliferation of bias response teams on campus has made it easy to report an instructor or student -- anonymously -- for having the wrong opinion, write Lukianoff and Goldstein.

The future is not bright for the easily offended.

Gen Z college graduates are doing poorly in the workforce, according to an employer survey by Intelligent. Six in 10 employers already have fired a college graduate hired this year, and three-quarters said some or all of recent graduate hires were unsatisfactory in some way. New graduates "are often unprepared" for "workplace cultural dynamics," Intelligent's Huy Nguyen reported. Employers complained that Gen Z hires lack motivation, initiative, professionalism and communications skills.