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Why academic freedom is important
The importance of free speech in universities
Censorship for college
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“The measure of progress of civilization is the progress of people. (Silverglate)” Such progress is made through education, and discussion, and further nurtured by colleges. Be that as it may, under the guise of vague policies and rules, censorship is thriving. This progress is stifled through censorship and the penalization of student speech, by which many of speeches are what campuses disapprove of based on personal beliefs. It thus creates unrest and deterioration both within the campuses and society. In 2003, Steve Hinkle, a student at California Polytechnic State University, was posting fliers around the campus. The fliers included a photograph of the speaker, black conservative Mason Weaver, and the words “It’s OK to Leave the Plantation,” the name of the book in which the author, Weaver, correlates African-American dependence on government programs to that of slavery. When approaching the public bulletin board, some African-American students who were nearby objected to him posting the flier. They stated that it was “offensive” and “disrespectful.” According to reports, Hinkle response to something along the lines of: “How do you know its offensive? Why can’t we talk about it?” The offended students said that the flier violated the campuses Multicultural Center’s posting policy, and threatened to call the police. Hinkle left without posting the flier. However the police were later called by one of the offended students, and urged the campus to punish Hinkle on the premise of “hate speech.” The university did just that, punishing him for “disrupting” a bible study. Apparently, no one had told Hinkle there was a meeting and he did not see any Bibles present. For seeking peacefully and politely to exercise his First Amendme...
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"Freedom of Speech." n.d. Speak up. 26 April 2014.
Hall, Kermit L. "Free speech on public college campuses overview." 13 September 2002. First Amendment Center. 26 April 2014.
Jr., Stuart Taylor. "How campus censors squelch freedom of speech." 14 July 2003. The Center for Individual Rights. 26 April 2014.
Lukianoff, Greg and Robert Shibley. "6 Ways to Defeat the Campus Censors." 21 April 2013. Minding the Campus. 26 April 2014.
Lukianoff, Greg. "Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate." 11 March 2014. Reason. 26 April 2014.
—. "Is Campus Censorship the New Normal?" 29 July 2010. Huffington Post. 26 April 2014.
Shibley, Robert. "'Problem': Offensive speech. 'Solution':Censorship and vandalism?" 1 October 2012. The Daily Caller. 26 April 2014.
Silverglate, Harvey. "Campus Censorship Breeds Societal Dysfunction." 16 January 2013. Forbes. 26 April 2014.
Throughout America, people place a high value in their freedom of speech. This right is protected by the first Amendment and practiced in communities throughout the country. However, a movement has recently gained momentum on college campuses calling for protection from words and ideas that may cause emotional discomfort. This movement is driven mainly by students who demand that speech be strictly monitored and punishments inflicted on individuals who cause even accidental offense. Greg Lukianoff and Johnathan Haidt discuss how this new trend affects the students mentally and socially in their article The Coddling of the American Mind published in The Atlantic Monthly. Lukianoff and Haidt mostly use logical reasoning and references to
Although some like Conor Friedersdorf, of the Atlantic, categorized students as “intolerant bullies, (34)” meaning that the reasons for protests were not really reasons at all. Chang argues that the issues students are expressing need to be improved upon as if not, we will continue to go round and round in this vicious cycle. The addition of the apartheid in South Africa backs up Chang’s argument as there is a consensus of it being a serious issue. This explains why he included this piece of history and how it relates to college campuses. Encouraging critics to listen to students, just as Meyer did to those of color, is the only way to prevent today's youth from bring up the same issues in future years. Just as Chang predicted, the next school year brought protesters to hundreds of colleges and universities. What happened at Mizzou was just the beginning of a country wide movement for racial justice on campuses that hasn’t stopped
Tedford, Thomas L., and Dale A. Herbeck. Freedom of Speech in the United States. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2009. Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. .
In the world today, Freedom of Speech is taken to a different level than what one may imply verbally. With social media, political debates, and the outpour of sexual orientation the First Amendment is exercised in its full capacity. Protecting Freedom of Expression on the campus is an article written by Derek Bok expressing his concerns regarding the display of a confederate flag hung from a window on the campus of Harvard University. The Confederate flag to some is a symbol of slavery and to others it is a symbol of war, or perhaps known as the “Battle Flag”. In this paper one will review Bok’s opinion of the First Amendment, clarity of free speech in private versus public institutions and the actions behind the importance of ignoring or prohibiting such communications according to the First Amendment.
Blair, L. (1996). Strategies for Dealing with Censorship. Art Education, 49(5, Essential Questions), pp. 57-61.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the topic of freedom of speech and free speech zones on college campuses. This paper will answer the questions: Why have so many Universities who protect academic freedom, retreat into fear of freedom? Are school officials afraid of debate and disagreement? Are they trying to keep people (outside the zone) from hearing words that may offend someone? These questions will be answered through analyses of previous court cases, journal articles and news articles.
Herbeck, Tedford (2007). Boston College: Freedom of Speech in the United States (fifth edition) Zacchini vs. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company 433 U.S. 562 Retrieved on March 2, 2008 from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/zacchini.html
...e, R. (1994). The regulation of hate speech on college campuses and the Library Bill of
In recent years, a rise in verbal abuse and violence directed at people of color, lesbians, and gay men, and other historically persecuted groups has plagued the United States. Among the settings of these expressions of intolerance are college and university campuses, where bias incidents have occurred sporadically since the mid-1980's. Outrage, indignation and demands for change are the responses to these incidents - understandably, given the lack of racial and social diversity among students, faculty and administrators on most campuses. Many universities, under pressure to respond to the concerns of those who are the objects of hate, have adopted codes or olicies prhibiting speech that offends any group based on race gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. That's the wrong response, well-meaning or not. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects speech no matter how offensive its content.
Issues of censorship in public schools are contests between the exercise of discretion and the exercise of a Constitutional right. The law must reconcile conflicting claims of liberty and authority, as expressed by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940 in “Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries” by Herbert N. Foerstel (23).
"Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus” by Derek Bok, published in Boston Globe in 1991, is an essay about what we should do when we are faced with expressions that are offensive to some people. The author discusses that although the First Amendment may protect our speech, but that does not mean it protects our speech if we use it immorally and inappropriately. The author claims that when people do things such as hanging the Confederate flag, “they would upset many fellow students and ignore the decent regard for the feelings of others” (70). The author discusses how this issue has approached Supreme Court and how the Supreme Court backs up the First Amendment and if it offends any groups, it does not affect the fact that everyone has his or her own freedom of speech. The author discusses how censorship may not be the way to go, because it might bring unwanted attention that would only make more devastating situations. The author believes the best solutions to these kind of situations would be to
Colleges and universities control their faculties and students’ actions by shaming and criticizing their faculties and students on social media when the faculty’s or student’s actions cause distresses to other college students. They also control their faculties’ or students’ actions by firing the faculty or suspending the student. In an article that is posted on the website Newsweek, Nina Burleigh states that “American college campuses are starting to resemble George Orwell’s Oceania with its Thought Police, or East Germany under the Stasi. College newspapers have been muzzled and trashed, and students are disciplined or suspended for “hate speech,” while exponentially more are being shamed and silenced on social media by their peers. Professors quake at the possibility of accidentally offending any student and are rethinking syllabi and restricting class discussions to only the most anodyne topics.” The idea American colleges and universities are compared to the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, or a thought police shows how dangerous and restrictive college campuses have become. This quote also cites the fact colleges have tried to censor their own newspaper as one of the examples how dangerous campuses have become. The fact that colleges try to censor their own newspaper and to intimidate their professors is troubling because this fact indicates that American colleges and
This article emphasizes the point that censors go too far when they attempt to not only ban a book for their own children but want to remove it altogether from a school library, so that other students cannot read it.
Thrasher, Frederic M.. "Education Versus Censorship." Journal of Educational Sociology 13.5 (1940): 285 - 306. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
Reitman, Rainey. " The Cost of Censorship in Libraries: 10 Years Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act." Electronic Frontier Foundation. Electronic Frontier Foundation, 4 Sept. 2013. Web.