JOHN HOPKINS U-- administrators funded an event featuring a porn movie director and then confiscated copies of a student newspaper reporting on the event--claiming the school had the right to remove "offensive materials," (but, of course, no right to remove porn, truly "offensive material," anywhere on campus, probably, or to prevent such a seminar by a porn director. Free speech is negatively selective at JHU.)
U. OF WISCONSIN--Tony, an A student, e-mailed Professor John Betton 2 articles with viewpoints differing from the prof's about the impacts of immigration. Prof. Betton took offense and accused Tony of making an "insulting assumption that you have the right to teach my class" and called his articles "right-wing racist crap." Tony went to the dean and was referred to a complaints committee headed by none other than Prof. Betton. (I have no update on this.)
TUFTS UNIVERSITY -- Intercollegiate Studies Institute has a network of campus affiliates with conservative newspapers produced by students on various campuses. At Tufts, The Primary Source is one of these papers. The editor, Douglas Kingman, said there was a "Soviet-style show trial" in which the paper was found guilty by the administration of "harassment and creating a hostile environment simply for publishing political satire --a ruling that completely IGNORES explicit school policies that protect controversial expression." The Committee on Student Life recommended that Tuft's student government "consider the behavior" of the magazine when allocating activities money --clearly paving the way for the shool to cancel funding and recognition of the paper. Presumeably, this doesn't happen when liberal views are expressed by papers or clubs applying for the student activities funds.
ONLY 12 PER CENT OF UNI'S REQUIRE STUDENTS TO TAKE EVEN ONE COURSE IN AMERICAN HISTORY OR GOVERNMENT--and many others water down such classes from a fear of being offensive --except when it comes to offending Christians, conservatives or long dead patriots who can't defend themselves against revisionist historians.
MANY UNI'S HAVE BLOCKED STUDENTS WHO WISHED TO SET UP MEMORIALS for victims of 9/11 attacks on the anniversaries of that tragedy.
TWO OUT OF THREE CAMPUSES DENY FREE SPEECH RIGHTS --acc'g to a poll in 300 schools. They "explicitly prohibit speech that the First Amendment protects off campus and all but eight have policies that could easily be interpreted as restricting speech."
Let me hasten to say here, that I think schools DO have a right to restrict some kinds of speech that our constitutional framers would have recognized as institutional right. I think vitriolic hate speech, obscene and pornographic material SHOULD be restricted in academic institutions, the same as slander and libel --especially in Christian and other religious schools which promote traditional Judeo-Christian-Western beliefs about morals. "Politically incorrect" speech, however, should not be restricted when it is reasoned with either religious rationale or factual concerns for public health and societal and individual well-being.
"Liberal academics duck genuine debates on the history of the West or ideology like the plague --they can't stand watching their ideas being shredded and exposed." --T. Kenneth Cribb, Jr. --Intercollegiate Studies Institute
I've found this to be true of some liberal blogs, if not most. They consider the Bible irrelevant as a guide for morality and wise decision-making. They cannot stand a good rationale behind intelligent design theory or creationism. They hate you if you don't think homosexuality is inevitable, healthy, necessary, or good. It's fair game to offend and censor the Christian and all his dearly held beliefs.
"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible
