Public Universities Should Substantially Increase and Enforce Restrictions to Curtail Hate Speech on Campus

The William Pitt Debating Union had its’ first public team debate (November 17, 2022) of the year discussing implementation of hate speech policies on Pitt’s campus. Since the words “hate speech” do not appear anywhere within the student handbook, this debate looked at the ramifications of curtailing hate speech vs. the mentality of freedom of speech. We held our debate in-house (we plan to collaborate with nearby schools like Duquesne soon), so research and argument planning for the affirmative and negative sides were able to be done in a collective manner! Truth-seeking research inquiries began with a need to define hate speech, then compare the impacts of hate-speech on individuals and communities to the possible dangers that could arise with limiting freedom of speech. Our debate ran smoothly, in the end the audience came to the conclusion that more policies were not necessary to enforce the use of hate speech on Pitt’s campus. We plan to have another debate in the spring semester and many more moving forward so we hope to see all of you in future audiences for the rejuvenation of The William Pitt Debating Union. - Kurran Singh