See Thru Edu is a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation
Thomas K. Lindsay, Ph.D., Editor in Chief and Director, Center for Higher Education, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Do colleges with free-speech zones and speech codes wish to imply in principle that Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and a heckler should be denied permission to speak on campus because their language might be abusive?
Posner’s claim that 18-year-olds are actually biologically incapable of handling free speech was expertly dismissed by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education President Greg Lukianoff when he encountered this argument while testifying before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last year.
As Thomas Sowell wrote, “If science could cross breed a jelly fish and a parrot, it could create academic administrators.”
Having been students at Oxford University for little more than three months, we have seen numerous examples of shocking censorship on campus. . . . Such a culture of mob-censorship is anathema to the principles upon which Western society has prided itself.
Tensions between civility norms and intellectual norms are not unique to George Mason. . . . The editors of the Chicago Maroon (the student newspaper) upbraided the faculty committee for failing to exempt what it called “hate speech” from the protections offered to speech in general.
Let’s hope that this resolution . . . will serve as an example for other institutions. As for accountability for those institutions whose leaders don’t adhere to these principles . . . how about denying federal and state funding to those who restrict freedom of speech through “speech codes” and other obstructions to free exchange?
Too late to spin this, it is but another unforced error for Duke in an attempt so prevalent on many elite campuses to demonstrate their “tolerance.” Tucker Carlson had the best response when he noted that this has nothing to do with tolerance, it is simply a “political editorial.”
I believe universities should be required to refer all incidents where crime may have been committed to the judicial system for adjudication. Sadly, I think universities cannot be trusted to be fair.
University officials threatened to call the police and disciplinary action against students who were passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution at Southern Oregon University (SOU) last week.
The moment finally came: my professor mocked one of my core beliefs right there in class. As a freshman (er, excuse me, “first-year student”—”freshman” is sexist), I was nervous.
