Chronicle of Higher Education
News Blog
December 15, 2008
Nearly three-quarters of colleges and universities maintain unconstitutional speech codes, according to a report released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The group, known as FIRE, gave 270 of 364 institutions a “red light” for having “at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.” In last year’s report, FIRE gave 259 of 346 colleges and universities that designation: 74.9 percent, compared with 74.2 percent this year.
In its news release announcing the report, the group quotes from a few universities’ antiharassment policies and lists recent targets of its Speech Code Litigation Project. The group has recently represented students in battles against the State University of New York at Binghamton, Temple University, Valdosta State University, and the University of Delaware. —Sara Lipka
http://chronicle.com/news/article/5676/free-speech-group-says-most-colleges-violate-the-first-amendment?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
2 comments:
Although their concerns about the protect of free speech are laudable, FIRE has no credibility in my eyes. They rank colleges based on a superficial reading of policies and do not respond to any requests to discuss their findings. The college at which I work was rated a red light school despite the fact that our policies clearly state the primacy of free speech interests and more importantly cannot reasonably be construed to substantially restrict anyone's free speech. If they were to come to campus and talk to any student, they would clearly realize how absurd their rankings are. The fact is that college campuses are among the most open places when it comes to free expression. Reading FIRE's report might make someone without any understanding believe this is the Soviet Union! I'm not sure what their motivation is, but they are certainly not helping anyone with their reactionary and inflammatory positions. They do not even deserve the respect of this blog post.
Thank you for your comment. The purpose of posting this article is to warn affirmative action and EEO officers that the "Speech codes police" are coming back to attack civil rights and anti-harassment policies again. In the early 90s, they almost succeeded in getting federal legislation to outlaw so-called speech codes. They're back!
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