2 students are testifying to the Senate about free speech on campus – USA TODAY

Isaac Smith. (Photo: Lori Cook, Athens News)

The debate over free speech on campus is no longer just part of the college and national conversation now its a federal matter.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing on free speech on college campuses Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. The hearing, entitled Free Speech 101: The Assault on the First Amendment on College Campuses, will host seven witnesses. The lineup includes businessmen, lawyers, college administrators and two students.

Zachary R. Wood and Isaac Smith are the two students who will be taking the floor to talk to the committee about free speech on their college campuses. Both students, active free speech advocates, can be expected to tell the Senate about their respective campus battles with free speech.

Zachary Wood is a rising senior at Williams College in Massachusetts. He is the current co-president of Uncomfortable Learning, a student group. According to the Williams College website, Uncomfortable Learning aims to increase the campus conversation around important political issues and especially to navigate unfamiliar viewpoints and perspectives. The group has brought speakers with a wide range of viewpoints to campus with the goal of exposing the student body to different ideas.

When the group invited Suzanne Venker, an anti-feminist, in 2015, the event was canceled for security concerns after Wood and other members started to receive an overwhelmingly negative backlash by other members of the student body.

When we say that a speaker should not come because of their views, were denying ourselves an opportunity to strengthen our own arguments, Wood wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post. He also argued that students were missing out on the opportunity to engage in a discussion with Venker.

The other student witness is Isaac Smith, a student at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, also experienced free speech challenges an undergraduate student at the Ohio University.

On his Facebook profile, Smith describes himself as a rising third-year student passionate about the First Amendment.

In 2014,Smith sued the University of Ohio after administrators at the university ordered him and his colleagues at Students Defending Students to stop wearing T-shirts with the slogan We get you off for free. Students Defending Students is a student organization that helps students with disciplinary infractions for free, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, where Smith is currently an intern.

Listen for Wood and Smith to discuss these incidents in their testimonies to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The other witnesses are: Frederick Lawrence, Secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society Fanta Aw, interim president of campus life at American University Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer with at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.

One of the most interesting testimonies may come from Aw, as American University has been the center of numerous protests regarding race this year. The most recent protest occurred when students found bananas hanging around the campus with string wrapped around the bananas to represent a noose just after the first black student body president took office.

The hearing will be streamed live Tuesday, June 20 at 10:00 am EST on the Judiciary Committees website.

Kellie Bancalari is a student at George Washington University and a USA TODAY College digital producer.

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2 students are testifying to the Senate about free speech on campus - USA TODAY