Survey finds more than three quarters of college students favor institutions offering safe spaces

More than three quarters of U.S. college students favor the idea of academic institutions supplying campus safe spaces, according to a new survey by the Knight Foundation.

The survey released Tuesday by the nonprofit, philanthropic group found 78 percent of students backed the idea of "providing safe spaces, or areas of campus that are designed to be free from threatening actions, ideas or conversations."

The concept of safe spaces has in more recent years become an ideological battleground between those who argue that students need a refuge from debate on such issues as race or religion while others college is where people learn to understand diversity of ideas and the free speech.

In the foundation survey, Democrats and women were far more likely to support safe spaces, compared to Republicans and men. While 62 percent of men favored college-provided safe spaces, a much larger 87 percent of women agreed. And while 57 percent of Republicans approved of the idea, 89 percent of Democrats favored colleges providing the stress-free zones.

Similar gender and political disparities also appeared when students expressed their views about "Disinviting speakers because some students perceive their message as offensive or biased against certain groups of people."

While 42 percent overall favored uninviting such speakers, women and Democrats favored the idea much more than men and Republicans. Thirty percent of men favored disinviting compared to 47 percent of women. And only 16 percent of Republicans favored it compared to 57 percent of Democrats, the survey found.

More than half of college students favored the cancellation of planned speeches because of concerns about the possibility of violent protests. And 61 percent overall favored cancelling the speeches due to potential violent protests.

While 47 percent of men favored cancelling such speeches, 69 percent of women favored calling them off. And 42 percent of Republicans favored this idea versus 70 percent of Democrats, the survey also found.