Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. MURPHY. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act.

As a former member of a board of trustees in a college, I am deeply concerned about the erosion of free speech on college campuses and political activism by administrators and college presidents as well as professors.

Institutions of higher education are chartered to foster academic excellence and prepare students for meaningful careers. Instead, they have become incubators of political activism and extreme progressive ideology.

One only has to look at recent FIRE reports and recent FIRE ratings to see the meteoric rise in self-censorship, which is happening on college campuses.

In one school, which I love dearly, 41 percent of students feel it is okay to shout down somebody who is coming to speak just because they disagree with them.

In some cases, even the most prestigious universities in our Nation have descended into hotbeds of anti-American and anti-Semitic hatred. We saw an American flag burned at Columbia University.

Thankfully, we have now seen several university presidents resign because of the ideological push that they are having on their campuses.

I believe that this is a symptom of extreme ideological influence that universities have allowed, permitted, and promoted to permeate its classrooms. They teach what to think, not how to think.

Sadly, this indoctrination is now going into the Nation's medical schools where we see this in the admissions process, fealty oaths, curriculum, promotion of faculty, and teaching what to think, not how to think.

I am proud that my bills, H. Res. 282, as well as the Campus Free Speech Restoration Act, were included in this legislation.

Academic freedom is central to vigorous debate and the exploration of ideas. Academic freedom means listening to more than one side. We must celebrate differences in thought, not censorship with those we disagree with.

Let's restore sanity on our college campuses across the country by seizing this opportunity to protect academic freedom.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act.

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