Over the past few decades public universities have been writing speech, harassment, and conduct codes that some believe have infringed upon students' rights of free expression. One organization called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has been fighting legal battles on behalf of students and professors who have run up against these policies. They have had a surprising run of success as courts or public opinion have generally backed FIRE's arguments.
Your assignment: go to and explore FIRE's website here. On the right margin is a "Find your school" map. Find one of the colleges that you applied to and read FIRE's entry about that college.
In your comment report on the school you looked at and what you found out. Is FIRE on to something or are they exaggerating a minor issue? If someone has already done your school then pick another one.
--Cicerone
UPDATE: In case you might think that FIRE is merely a right-wing special interest group trying to stir up trouble, according to this article the current president of FIRE, Greg Lukianoff, is a "a self-described 'pro-choice liberal'."
12 comments:
Hahaha I looked up Johns Hopkins University and apparently it's a 'red alert' college. That means it's the 'worse of the worst' in protecting students' free speech rights and etc. Apparently, one student posed a halloween party invitation on facebook that said "Halloween in the Hood." Some students found it offensive and reported it to the school and the accused student was suspended from college for a year, had long hours of community service, and other severe punishments.
I agree with FIRE on that the university's reaction to the kid's 'offensive' invitations was incredibly ridiculous and uncalled for. If some students have a problem with another student's writing/speech, then they should retaliate with their own writing/speech instead of ruining another's future by causing such severe repercussions such as suspension. Also I think JHU was cruel and unjust in the way they dealt with this problem. Maybe the accuser's parents had donated a lot of money to the school...
Hmm i read more into the story about the kid and the halloween party. In the invitation, it said to bring 'bling bling ice ice and grillz.' Apparently, some of the decorations of the party were considered offensive too. Particularly a pirate skeleton with dreadlocks hanging from a noose. Some students from some kind of black union club or whatever found the skeleton to be offensive and accused the other student of being racist. They took a lot of pictures of it and sent them to the president of the university.
Wow. That's kind of stupid. It just sounds like the students who got offended were purposefully looking for any kind of trouble to stir up and made a whole mess of something that wasn't meant to be taken offensively. The student who hosted the party said the skeleton was meant to relate to the pirates of the carribbean characters. Fortunately, the student filed for an appeal and his punishment was lessened. Still, I don't think he should've been punished at all...
Geez, I'm kind of nervous now. I guess I have to be very careful not to offend people at JHU. No more vietnam/zebra jokes for me... (hahaha i'll explain later)
The President of the school made new rules and regulations that prohibited 'rude and disrepectful behavior,' which is really vague and ambiguous.
You know I'm a little confused about this topic. I don't think I fully understand what FIRE does. Anyway, I looked up Duke and it has a green rating, which means it effectively protects the free speech of the students at its school. The only case against it was when a professor had to put a disclaimer on his web page because he supported strong military action after 9/11, he had to say it was his opinion and not the school's. FIRE found this to be hypocritical since no other teachers have ever had to put disclaimers on their web pages at Duke. I have no personal opinion on this particular case, but I think, in general, free speech is a good thing. Over the years writers, musicians, and many others have been harassed for saying things that some in the public did not approve of. We've had book burnings, boycotts, and much more, but often when we look back at these cases and events most concede that it was not that big of a deal, and that the actions of the opposition were often extreme. My simple opinion is that free speech is always good, even if you support something that most consider negative. For example, most probably would not want members of the KKK and Neo- Nazi's to have the right to free speech because so much of what they say is hateful. However, I think that once you start limiting what one group can say, it could grow larger, and just because we don't approve of someone's opinion doesn't mean we have to shut them up. I think free speach should be allowed, in all cases, as long as it does not physically hurt another individual.
I checked and apparently none of the service academies are listed on the site. Its not that much of a surprise, though. I would say that of any university in the country freedom of speech is most restricted at the academies. Privately, you are allowed to discuss or express yourself in any way that you see fit, but in a public forum you are expected to conduct yourself with the professionalism of an officer of the United States Military. Essentially, this means you follow a strict honor code, follow the rules and regulations that have been designated to you and defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Obviously, no "anti-american" or anti-military publicity is accepted within the guidelines of those rules. Anything racist, or similarly inappropriate is highly discouraged because it could compromise the effectiveness of your team and show weakness as a leader.
As I said before, cadets are still encouraged to think for themselves and express their ideas in a manner that is socially appropriate. As long as you don't draw attention to yourself with anything extravagant you are, for the most part, safe from censorship.
I know that at USMA, there is a student run radio network (common among any university) which frequently allows for open and free discussion of ideas and regulations (even with the majors, colonels, etc.. who made the rules and symbolize everything good and bad about the system). Its not a complete brain-washing institution, the government just wants to make sure their investments don't get too out of line.
College of Charleston is not on the list, so I looked up Auburn.
It is a red alert university. There are many conduct codes at Auburn that take away from a complete freedom of speech, but it is also in the interest of keeping everything fair and everyone safe.
For example, their harassment policy is stated as "includes but is not limited to: slurs, jokes, or other graphic or physical conduct relating to a student’s race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age and disability."
This may be a little extreme, but it does keep everyone from getting made fun of or discriminated against.
There is also a certain time and place where people can protest or have demonstrations and they must notify Student Affairs 48 hours prior.
That kind of defeats the purpose of having a protest because it can be put down or rejected.
I think this website has a good point and is just trying to inform all of us future and current college students that we may not have that freedom of speech completely allowed to us.
It is my personal opinion that the freedom to say whatever you want should extend wherever you go. However, one is always to be held accountable for what is said. A major part of colleges today is cultural blending. When you pull together students from different backgrounds and races, you will of course get arguments. This is not necessarily negative since debates not only express new ideas, but also allow those debating to quickly cultivate their stand on any such subject.
Having thus stated that free speech is and should always be kept an open right, this right comes with responsibilities. Profanity and racism have no place in any classroom. Teachers who use profanity or pick on students simply out of spite should be fired on the spot. Likewise, the sort of mindless chatter that overtakes class rooms today should simply be dispelled by removal of the student from the learning environment if necessary.
“Random tangent”
It is, annoying to me to listen to students who have nothing better to do than distract from the class and make useless noise. It would be hypocritical to say that I do not myself sometimes do this (I was a tyrant 9th and 10th grade) however, there is a point when you simply must grow up! There is a place for silliness and nonsense, and its not continuously during class. I hope, beyond hope that when I enter a college environment I can bypass such students.
QUESTION?????
Directed to those who abhor mindless gitter…
Would you do the following in college to be certain of obtaining a brighter future
1) take morning classes so that the partiers aren’t there.
2) apply into an honors program
3) dress up for class like we do now? (professional attire)
4) refuse to take classes that will not benefit you (stagecraft)
5) ask to be roomed with someone at the top of their class or in the honors program
I looked up Lee University (a private school in Cleveland, TN), however, it was not listed on the FIRE website. Therefore, I decided to just look up UGA. It was deemed a "red light university" because it clearly restricts freedom of speech due to a situation that rose with fraternities.
Apparently the university restricted free speech to fraternities when a UGA administrator emailed all fraternities on campus, prohibiting them to display "stars and bars flags/confederate flags (unless you are flying the pre-56)" from the house windows. This included the Georgia state flag as well.
Administrators declared that the display of these flags would "violate the diversity plan" and violators would suffer charges by the IFC if the flags were displayed. The students then contacted FIRE and when the university found out, they withdrew their orginal threat of charges by the IFC.
It appears that universities are willing to make threats regarding students' rights until they are confronted about the situation... then they tend to back down. This is not right.
I looked up Ohio State University and it is a red alert college. One of the FIRE cases against the college is the fact that it refused to allow religious clubs to decide membership based upon a persons religious beliefs.
I agree with FIRE on this issue because according to the First Amendment we have freedom of religion and like FIRE said, a Muslim organization has a right to be Muslim just like Mount Pisgah can legally turn away students based upon their religion because we are a "Christian" school.
I think freedom of speech should be allowed in all cases because once you suppress one persons freedom of speech its only a matter of time before that grows.
I cant tell.
Looking at different schools I see some cases that I think are spot on, while others I believe are a little extremist in their free speech movement.
I understand that free speech is important, but also I think that the reputation of the school is important as well and that in some cases administrators have been simply trying to protect their school's integrity.
That being said, it is also important to allow free speech in a college environment, but should be monitored with rules, just not as strict as some cases have let them on to be. And thats just to help keep things from getting out of hand.
Many of the cases also just involved people who were looking for a fight, people who believe that everyone is out to get them and its their duty to sue each and every person who comes across them wrong, because to those people free speech should only be given to those who agree with them.
Its a sick world we live in. Racism has been reversed and is actually I'd say, worse than ever.
Hopefully I'll be getting good news from an Academy so I can avoid the whole public campus mess.
I looked up Fordham University on FIRE's website and they were a red alert college. In fact, every university that I looked up which I had applied to was a red alert school.
While Fordham did not have any FIRE cases or recent media coverage, the website did list a lot of the university's policies. The majority of the policies seem aimed at protecting the sudents from physical and mental harm. Like everyone else, though, I also believe that students should have the right to exercise freedom of speech.
Sorry this is late! I just got home from tennis practice.. Anyways I tried to look up Belmont but it was not listed... so I looked up The University of Alabama which is considered a red light university by fire. "
"A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech."
I think that what FIRE is trying to accomplish is so incredibly important because of all of the censorship and blocking of freedom of speech in colleges. College is supposed to be a place where we go to learn what we think about issues around us today. However, if we cannot voice our opinions and learn from the other people around us, then the colleges are not really accomplishing that goal.
I think that it is especially ridiculous because some of these "problems" of students using free speech that tends to offend someone lead to court cases that cost thousands of taxpayer’s dollars that could be put to better use. Also, it is important to see if it is constitutional to stop someone from voicing his or her opinion. Of course we have the freedom of speech, but these colleges are getting away with taking away that right.
I looked up Furman, which has a "red" rating. Isn't Furman private, though?. I don't really know a lot about FIRE, but it seems like a good resource.
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