Millennial Action Project

Americans are not optimistic about the state of higher education. A 2025 Pew Research survey revealed that 7 in 10 adults believe that higher education in the United States is generally going in the wrong direction. Forty-six percent say that colleges and universities do a fair or poor job of “providing opportunities for students to express their own opinions.” Forty-five percent negatively rate these institutions’ job of “exposing students to a wide range of opinions.”

On the ground, students engage in self-censorship out of fear of how their views will be received by both their professors and peers. Fear of engaging with ideological opponents and the resulting breakdown of communication are surely fueling polarization in our country.