What College Students Really Think About Cancel Culture

Every couple of months it seems the news features another college-campus free-speech incident. In 2021, for instance, a University of Rochester professor was suspended after quoting texts that contained a racial slur; MIT canceled a lecture by a speaker who’d criticized diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; and a handful of students across the country felt they were kept out of campus leadership positions due to their conservative beliefs.

Because of events like these, many political commentators write about the threat to academic freedom with an end-of-times urgency. State legislators have introduced roughly 81 bills...