{"id":76843,"date":"2019-03-21T22:39:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T05:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=76843"},"modified":"2019-03-21T22:39:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T05:39:10","slug":"president-trump-at-signing-of-executive-order-improving-free-inquiry-transparency-and-accountability-at-colleges-and-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=76843","title":{"rendered":"President Trump at Signing of Executive Order, \u201cImproving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Thank you very much.  Please be seated.  I am truly delighted to welcome so many impressive young Americans to the White House.  This is a very exciting day.  What we\u2019re doing is very important.  And we\u2019re here to take historic action to defend American students and American values.  They\u2019ve been under siege.  In a few moments, I will be signing an executive order to protect free speech on college campuses.  Just the thought of it sounds good.  We\u2019re grateful \u2014 (applause).  It\u2019s true.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ApAOGTjmjUI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re very grateful to be joined today by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.  Betsy?  Where are you, Betsy?  Hi, Betsy.  (Laughter.)  And Secretary of Health and Human Services, who has done a really great job \u2014 we have prescription drug prices coming down \u2014 first time in 51 years, so \u2014 Alex Azar.  Thank you very much, Alex.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, let me thank all of the college students and recent graduates here with me on stage.  Incredible young people.  These courageous Americans have stood up for [to] the forces of political indoctrinations \u2014 and they really stood up to it, too, like very few people have been able to; censorship; and coercion.<\/p>\n<p>You refused to be silenced by powerful institutions and closed-minded critics, of which there are many.  You faced down intimidation, pressure and abuse.  You did it because you love your country and you believe in truth, justice, and freedom.  And I want to thank you all, everybody in the room, including a lot of folks in the audience.  Charlie.  A lot of folks,<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve fought bravely for your rights and now you have a President who is also fighting for you.  I\u2019m with you all the way.  Okay?  All right?  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>In America, the very heart of the university\u2019s mission is preparing students for life as citizens in a free society.  But even as universities have received billions and billions of dollars from taxpayers, many have become increasingly hostile to free speech and to the First Amendment.  You see it all the time.<\/p>\n<p>You turn on the news and you see things that are horrible.  You see people being punched hard in the face.  But he didn\u2019t go down.  He didn\u2019t go down.  (Applause.)  I said, \u201cYou have a better chin than Muhammad Ali, and he had a great chin.\u201d  (Laughter.)  And you see the cowbell scene.  You saw that horrible scene.  That was a disgraceful thing at a school, at a university.<\/p>\n<p>Under the guise of \u201cspeech codes\u201d and \u201csafe spaces\u201d and \u201ctrigger warnings,\u201d these universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity, and shut down the voices of great young Americans like those here today.  These are great people.<\/p>\n<p>All of that changes starting right now.  We\u2019re dealing with billions and billions and billions of dollars.  (Applause.) Taxpayer dollars should not subsidize anti-First Amendment institutions.  And that\u2019s exactly what they are: anti-First Amendment.  Universities that want taxpayer dollars should promote free speech, not silence free speech.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s groundbreaking action is the first in a series of steps we will take to defend students\u2019 rights.  We are proudly joined by several young Americans who can speak directly about ideological intolerance on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Here with us is Ellen Wittman, a junior at Miami University in Ohio.  A great school.  Ellen is the President of Students for Life.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, Ellen planned an annual event to display small wooden crosses representing the lives of the unborn.  School officials informed Ellen that she would be required to post signs all over campus providing a \u201ctrigger warning\u201d to other students regarding her display.<\/p>\n<p>Ellen, please come up.  Say a few words.  Tell us your story, please.  (Applause.)   Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>MS. WITTMAN:  Well, thank you, Mr. President.  This is a truly historic day in our country\u2019s history.  And I am so grateful that we have a President who recognizes that the First Amendment is under attack on our college campuses.<\/p>\n<p>My story is so important because I have seen lives saved through my Students for Life efforts on campus.  But I never imagined the hostility I would face when trying to express my beliefs.  It\u2019s ridiculous that it has gotten to this point.<\/p>\n<p>Universities are supposed to be marketplaces of ideas.  They should be encouraging free speech, not shutting it down.  And speech is not free when university officials put conditions on student speech.  The only permit we need to speak on campus is the First Amendment.  Thank you, Mr. President.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  You watch, we will be witnessing today some great future political leaders.  There\u2019s plenty of them in the room.  Not just up here, right?  Out there too.  We really appreciate it.  That was beautiful.  Thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re also joined by Kaitlyn Mullen, a student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.  While simply standing at a table to represent a conservative group on campus, Turning Point USA \u2014 which does such incredible work.  And thank you very much, Charlie. It\u2019s true.  Come on.  We can give him a hand.  (Applause.)  Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>Kaitlyn was approached by staff and a graduate instructor, and was berated and cursed at.  School officials tried to bully Kaitlyn into leaving, but she bravely stood her ground. Kaitlyn, please come up and say a few words.  Okay, Kaitlyn?  Thank you.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>MS. MULLEN:  Thank you, Mr. President.  What happened to me is common on universities today and students are getting shut down and silenced on campus.  So I\u2019m really thankful that President Trump is addressing this issue because, as the future of America, it\u2019s important that our universities are a place where we could speak freely and have healthy, respectful dialogue on campus.<\/p>\n<p>So thank you so much, President Trump, for doing this.  No other student should have to go through what I\u2019ve gone through on campus.  So thank you.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Thank you, Kaitlyn.  Beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>And I have to say that, you know, we have \u2014 in my opinion, we have more than they have.  People don\u2019t realize that.  You see what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n<p>I just came back from Ohio.  The streets were lined with people.  I came back recently from Alabama, where they had that horrible tornado.  It was terrible.  But the people were lined as far as the eye could see \u2014 lined up with people.  And we\u2019re here.  This is the White House.  I\u2019m the President.  And we\u2019re together.<\/p>\n<p>And hopefully, we can bring everybody together.  That\u2019s really what we want to do.  And they can have different views.  And if they do have different views, we encourage that.  But they have to let you speak.  They have to let you speak.<\/p>\n<p>Also here with us today is Polly Olson, a student at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.  Last year, Polly was handing out homemade Valentine\u2019s Day cards with messages such as \u201cYou are special\u201d and \u201cJesus loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>College officials stopped her and told her that she would be restricted to so-called \u201cfree speech zone\u201d because some people might find her cards offensive.  I don\u2019t.  (Laughter.)  I love that card.  (Applause.)  In fact, Polly, give me some.  I\u2019ll send them around to my friends.  (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>Polly, please say a few words.  Polly.  Polly, thank you.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>MS. OLSON:  So freedom of speech is near and dear to my heart.  My mother told me while she was homeschooling me that I would need to know what my First Amendment rights were because someday they would be violated and I would have to stand up for them.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m carrying on her legacy of handing out these little valentines encouraging people to know that they are loved and cared for.  And within 15 minutes of setting foot on my campus this past year, I was told that I was soliciting and disrupting the learning environment and that it would not be tolerated and that I would have to stop handing out my valentines.<\/p>\n<p>And I contacted some friends of mine and they sent me to WILL to have legal counsel because this wasn\u2019t the first time the school had done it to me.  They had stopped me a year \u2014 well, a few months after my mom died \u2014 and told me that I was not allowed to do it then.  So I went through months of trying to get them to change this policy that they were enforcing, and they told me that they would do it.  Well, that was five years ago.<\/p>\n<p>So now it was time to take action and make them follow through with what they were telling me that they were going to do \u2014 trying to shut me up.  I\u2019m just one of many students that are out there that universities and schools are trying to shut down, sweep it under the rug, and make them be quiet.<\/p>\n<p>And I told them I\u2019m not going to be quiet this time.  I\u2019m going to talk to anyone and everyone I can about our freedom of speech in this country because it\u2019s really the core of America\u2019s freedom.  And without freedom of speech, we don\u2019t have America anymore.<\/p>\n<p>And so I challenge America to learn to love one another as Christ did on the cross for each one of us.  And that \u2014 speak your differences.  It\u2019s okay.  We are in a country of freedom.  And, really, that\u2019s what\u2019s important \u2014 is to embrace the diversity that we have here because that\u2019s made America great in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>And we need to carry on that legacy of protecting freedom of speech on campuses and in our workplaces.  People at work should not be afraid to express their beliefs.  It\u2019s our right.  It\u2019s our freedom.  Thank you.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:  So thank you all for your courage.<\/p>\n<p>Today, we are delivering a clear message to the professors and power structures trying to suppress dissent and keep young Americans \u2014 and all Americans, not just young Americans like Ellen and Kaitlyn and Polly \u2014 from challenging rigid, far-left ideology.  People who are confident in their beliefs do not censor others \u2014 we don\u2019t want to censor others \u2014 they welcome free, fair and open debate.  And that\u2019s what we\u2019re demanding.<\/p>\n<p>Under the policy I am announcing today, federal agencies will use their authority under various grant-making programs to ensure that public universities protect, cherish \u2014 protect the First Amendment and First Amendment rights of their students, or risk losing billions and billions of dollars of federal taxpayer dollars.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Every year, the federal government provides educational institutions with more than $35 billion in research funding.  All of that money is now at stake.  That\u2019s a lot of money.  (Laughter.)  They are going to not have to like your views a lot, right?  (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p>We will not stand idly by and allow public institutions to violate their students\u2019 constitutional rights.  If a college or university doesn\u2019t allow you to speak, we will not give them money.  It\u2019s very simple.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, private universities should be held to their own policies on free speech.  So, from now on, federal agencies will also use their grant-making authority to promote transparency for students at private schools.  These colleges should not be able to promise free speech in theory, and then impose restrictive speech codes in practice, which is what many of them do.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s action is just the beginning of our efforts to protect free speech and advance our students\u2019 rights agenda.  What I\u2019ve been witnessing over the last long period of time, long before I became President \u2014 what I\u2019ve been witnessing is outrageous.<\/p>\n<p>This order will also empower students with vital information about the value of the programs they take on and \u2014 having to do with debt.  Student loan debt.  I\u2019m going to work to fix it because it\u2019s outrageous what\u2019s happening.  You\u2019re not given that fair start.  You\u2019re too far down.  It\u2019s not right.  And we\u2019re going to work very, very hard to get it fixed.<\/p>\n<p>But we\u2019re going to start with 43 million people in the United States who are currently working to pay off student loans.  And we\u2019ll be talking about that very soon.  We\u2019re going to work on that very soon.  I\u2019ve always been very good with loans and \u2014 (laughter) \u2014 I love loans.  (Laughter.)  I love other people\u2019s money.  (Laughter and applause.)  And we\u2019re going to work on it.  (Applause.)  I made a lot of money with those loans, and you\u2019re going to, too.  You\u2019re going to do something that\u2019s going to be fair and good.  But we\u2019re going to work with you very closely.<\/p>\n<p>The average student loan borrower owes roughly $35,000 dollars \u2014 that\u2019s a lot \u2014 and, in many cases, much more than that.  I\u2019ve seen numbers that go over $200,000.  You\u2019re behind the eight ball before you start.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, typically, students who take loans do not have access to critical information about what career outcomes they can expect from their programs, majors, or fields of study.  They borrow more money than they can ever expect to pay off or pay back.<\/p>\n<p>Many middle-class American families are getting ripped off, while tax-exempt colleges and large institutions, frankly \u2014 they take these tremendous endowments.  You look at the money that they have.  They\u2019re making a fortune.<\/p>\n<p>For that reason, I am directing the Department of Education and the Department of Treasury to publish detailed information on future earnings and loan repayment rates for every major and every program at every single school.  It\u2019s very important.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s order also directs the Department of Education to propose a plan that will require colleges and universities to have skin in the game by sharing a portion of the financial risk of the student loan debt.  I believe \u2014 (applause).<\/p>\n<p>I believe that colleges and universities, their costs have gone up more than anything I can think of.  I\u2019ve watched this.  And you watch companies, and they\u2019ll keep it the same for years and years.  And you watch these colleges and universities and certain institutions, where it just goes right through the roof.<\/p>\n<p>And the reason \u2014 there\u2019s no incentive to them to watch costs.  You see people at the heads of the institutions being paid a fortune.  They don\u2019t care because the government loans the student the money, they pay the money to the college, and then the student graduates from college \u2014 maybe a very good college, but they graduate \u2014 or university \u2014 and they\u2019re stuck with $200,000 in loans that they won\u2019t be able to pay off for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re going to make them have an incentive to keep their costs down.  Right now, they have no incentive whatsoever.  I watched this over a period of time, I figured it out very, very quickly.  I\u2019m good at that stuff, believe me.  (Laughter.)  And I just see their numbers go up so rapidly because they just don\u2019t have the burden on them.  And we\u2019re going to put burden on the institutions.<\/p>\n<p>We want them to get the best peop- \u2014 teachers and the professors and the administrators and the heads, but the numbers are out of reality.  And certainly, they make it out of reality for students when you have to pay back those loans someday.<\/p>\n<p>With today\u2019s action and every action to come, the Trump administration will fight for America\u2019s students.  We\u2019re fighting very hard.<\/p>\n<p>And remember what I said: We\u2019re going to give the student loans \u2014 where you have way, way over a trillion dollars in student loans \u2014 we\u2019re going to start looking at that very seriously and help some of those students that are just mired in debt.<\/p>\n<p>We know that freedom must prevail on college campuses if freedom is to prosper in America.  It\u2019s so important.  And we believe that greatness must be practiced in our halls of learning if greatness is to thrive in our halls of government and our corridors of commerce.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re going to have great lives.  But I want you to get off to a great start, not a start where you\u2019re behind a barricade that just doesn\u2019t let you succeed.  And we\u2019re going to make it much easier for you \u2014 this administration \u2014 and we\u2019ve worked very hard on it already.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be having some meetings.  And we\u2019ll be having some very major discussions with some of the biggest colleges and universities.  And we\u2019re going to have them shoulder some of the responsibility and some of the money that\u2019s necessary for you to use in order to get your education.<\/p>\n<p>To every student and young American here today: Don\u2019t let anyone stop you from doing what you know is right, from asking questions, from challenging the powerful, or from speaking your mind.  And that\u2019s the primary reason we\u2019re here right now.  You\u2019re going to speak your mind.  You\u2019re going to be fair.  You\u2019re going to reasonable.  You\u2019re going to do it well.  And you\u2019re going to speak your mind.<\/p>\n<p>Never ever quit, never give in, and never back down. Keep standing up for your values, for your classmates, and for your country.  And you can be certain that, every day of my presidency, we will always support your rights, and your freedoms, and your future.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you all for being here.  This is a great honor for me.  I\u2019ve been watching this for too long.  I\u2019ve been watching things that are unwatchable and I don\u2019t like it.  But we\u2019re going to do something about it.  See?  We like to act, as opposed to just watching and saying, \u201cOh, isn\u2019t that a shame?\u201d  We don\u2019t say that.  (Laughter.)  We don\u2019t say that.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>And I want to congratulate everybody \u2014 everybody \u2014 for being here.  You have just a tremendous future ahead of you and this will make it a lot easier.  And you get that point of view across.<\/p>\n<p>And listen to the other point of view.  Maybe you can changed and maybe not.  I doubt it.  (Laughter.)  But maybe.  You never know.  And you what?  If you can, that\u2019s okay.  And you\u2019ll change them, too.  You\u2019re going to change them, too.  But, ultimately, it brings people together.<\/p>\n<p>So congratulations.  I\u2019ll sign right now.  Thank you all for being here.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>(The executive order is signed.)<\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much.  (Applause.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Thank you very much. Please be seated. I am truly delighted to welcome so many impressive young Americans to the White House. This is a very exciting day. What we\u2019re doing is very important. And we\u2019re here to take historic action to defend American students and American values. They\u2019ve been under siege. In a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/colegespeach.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}