A Texas State Senate committee holds a hearing today on the campus of Texas State University in San Marcos into whether new laws are needed to protect free speech on state college campuses, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
In the past few months, Texas Southern University and Texas A&M University have bowed to what is called a 'heckler's veto,' and suspended planned presentations by controversial and in one case a fringe right wing speakers, after students, many of them affiliated with radical leftist groups, threatened violence.
"A university is supposed to be all about free thinking and open debate," said State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) who is vice chair of the committee appointed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to look into the issue.
"When we try to stifle views that we don't share, we are really asking for trouble."
The specific laws that may be proposed in the 2019 session to 'protect' campus free speech have not yet been written, and that's what troubles Rice University political analyst Mark Jones about today's hearing.
"Anything the state legislature does is going to be far more symbolic," he said. "To send a message that the state legislature is watching."
Hughes says when public universities are involved, that is the government telling somebody they cannot speak due to the content of that speech, and he says that is troubling.