Is Speaking Up an Act of Courage? My Thoughts From a Week on Princeton’s Campus

By Angela Smith
Princetonians for Free Speech

I sat with four of our PFS student writing fellows at a little wooden table at Maman, one of Princeton’s cozy coffee shops, and asked them a question that had been on my mind all day: Is speaking up in class an act of courage?

Some backstory. I spent the last week of September on campus, including time with Dean Ian Deas, who oversees the policies that guide student organizations, and Dean Garrett Meggs, who works to protect and promote free expression on campus. One theme that came up in that conversation is that self-censorship is a choice. Princeton can protect a student’s right to speak, but each student still decides whether to use it. What Princeton can influence is how much that choice costs.

At Maman, all four students agreed that speaking up in class is, in most cases, courageous. Then came the caveats. Some people speak up because they like to hear themselves talk, one said. Others like to argue for argument’s sake, two agreed. But the theme I heard most was that students speak up when they hold an opinion closely and feel strongly about it. In other words, they’ve decided something matters enough to risk saying it aloud.

And, as the students shared with me, there is real risk. A student who disagrees with her professor in front of classmates may be putting her grade, her reputation, and even some friendships on the line. Choosing to speak anyway takes nerve. So yes, I largely agree with the students: speaking up is courageous.

That doesn’t mean staying quiet is borne from fear. For example, not arguing politics with a roommate who just got a bad grade on a paper is simply good judgment. So how do you tell judgment from fear? Ask yourself: “If there were no consequences, would I say it?” If the answer is yes and you still stay quiet, fear made the decision for you. The choice was still yours, but pressure – real or perceived – from the university, professors, or classmates set the price.

That price is where Princeton, PFS and the rest of us, come in.

Princeton sets the price through its policies and, most important, its culture. It earned an F in FIRE’s 2027 rankings, mostly because of its institutional policies. But the student survey behind those rankings shows Princeton jumping from 165th to 35th in the country on students’ comfort expressing ideas. Our own PFS student surveys show similar progress. In 2023, only 30% of students said they’d be comfortable publicly disagreeing with a professor on a controversial topic. By 2025, 49% said they were comfortable doing it. Part of that is work PFS has done. Several years ago, PFS helped bring free expression programming to freshman orientation for the first time. The university has kept it going, and every class since has heard, in its first week, that disagreement belongs at Princeton. That message doesn’t make the choice for students, but it tells them which choice the university protects.

Professors set the price, too. They can’t make every student comfortable; disagreeing out loud usually feels at least a little uncomfortable. But they can make sure no student fears a bad grade for speaking. They also decide who gets the floor. A professor who lets the same three students run every discussion is choosing, whether they mean to or not, which ideas get heard. Calling on the quiet student in the back makes it more likely the room hears something different. A professor who lowers the cost of speaking might do more for free expression than any policy the university could write.

Lowering the price helps, but courage still has to be built. One of our student writers, Elaine Gao ‘28, recently wrote that free speech is like a muscle: it gets stronger the more you use it. Aristotle said something similar more than 2,000 years ago: we become brave by doing brave things. You can’t think your way into bravery. Each time you choose to speak, the next time gets easier, more natural, and maybe eventually even gratifying. Every time a student speaks up and nothing terrible happens, it gets easier for the next student. It works in reverse, too. Every time you keep quiet, keeping quiet gets a little easier.

Two of our writing fellows are building that muscle this semester in POL 326, “Constitutional Difficulties in the Age of Trump.” One of the course’s core principles is that students must take, hold and defend views that contradict their own. Both told me it’s hard, even painful, to argue a position so different from their own. Both also said it’s stretching their critical thinking and argument skills in ways few other classes have. They’re practicing courage in real time.

That’s why this matters so much to PFS. When more students choose to speak up, a wider range of opinions makes it into the room. That’s viewpoint diversity, and it’s the heart of what we do. A classroom where everyone agrees, or seems to, can’t really test ideas. Students learn more when they hear views they don’t share, and they understand their own views better when they have to defend them. Princeton’s rules protect the right to speak, but only the habit of speaking keeps free speech alive.

The choice is ours, too. Speak up, respectfully but honestly. Ask the students in your life how free they feel to speak up in class, and talk with them about it. And if you’re so inclined, support the work that’s helping more Princeton students choose to speak.

Angela Smith is the Executive Director of Princetonians for Free Speech.