OBSTACLES
TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES TODAY
D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930):
"The censor-moron does not hate anything but the living and growing human
consciousness. . . and our consciousness in its newest, most sensitive
activity, its vital growth."
Please E-mail
us with problems you have encountered at your school. We hope
to post some of these on this website
We have documented the incidents
below from university sources such as student newspapers, and have attempted
(and sometimes received) verification from administrators. Additions and
corrections would be appreciated.
This website does not include
issues related to student press freedoms, which are covered extensively
by the Student Press Law Center
Fighting
for your right to write and speak freely is an important part of learning
who you are: MORE....
The public vs. the private university
and First Amendment issues:
MORE....
Universities and the "Least
Restrictive Means" of preventing "indecent" or "offensive" expression:
MORE . . .
Universities can--if they have
a will to--write your freedom of speech into codes they abide by:
MORE....
Here are some documents which
sincerely respect students as responsible individuals:
A Model Campus Speech Code
(posted from U.
of Arkansas)
A non-punitive computer use policy
(at Mansfield
[PA] University)
A mediation-centered policy regarding
controversial student artwork
(from Penn State University)
Free expression on campus vs.
"appropriateness" and "community standards:
MORE....
Guidelines which insure free
expression: MORE...
Back to Overview
Late adolescence provides many
kinds of learning experiences. It
is up to a university administration to determine which kinds it wishes
to tolerate. A student who participated in the 1999 Nude Olympics at Princeton
described her experience in an article
(4/14/99) in Salon
Magazine
RELATED
LINKS
Justice
on Campus: dedicated to "preserv[ing] free expression and due
process rights at universities." "Archive includes reports on disciplinary
charges, speech codes, and censorship on college campuses around the country."
Other
Voices: wonderful array of freedom of expression issues, created as
part of a course in First Amendment issues at Northwestern University.
Peacefire:
"an anti net censorship website for teenagers."
MIT Student Association for Freedom
of Expression (SAFE):
many resources, including
a section on “censor
bait”: what authorities do not want you to see related to indecency,
drugs, music, etc.
Top
Ten Threats to Academic Freedom”: although this site dates from 1995,
there is excellent material on Censorship in Cyberspace, Codes of Conduct,
Censoring the
Student Press,Alumni Demands vs. Academic Freedom, and Censorship of Faculty.
The Princeton
University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies (studying "community
conflict over the arts")
Banned
Music in the United States (listen to samples)
Rock
Out Censorship: "a grass roots anti-censorship organization . . . not
happy about having our First Amendment rights trampled, ignored, desecrated,
and pissed on by spineless politicians that have sold out this country
to corporate interests, religious zealots . . . and the so-called liberal
sentries of political correctness
in which nobody can dare utter a single word that might be construed as
something that might offend someone."
Back to Overview
Margaret Sanger (1883-1966)
produced films and books on birth control for which she was jailed several
times. Her work was declared contrary to the laws of God and man. Officials
thought Sanger was encouraging immorality in the common people for whom
her works were intended. Many politicians and clergymen said slum dwellers,
not having proper religious education, would only use the films and
books licentiously.
INCIDENTS
USING
CAMPUS FACILITIES: DISPLAY of ARTWORK
Penn State,
1996-98: STUDENT SCULPTURE AND QUILT ORDERED REMOVED (see The
AAUP guidelines describing how responsibly to protest against
a speaker expressing a viewpoint from which a student dissents). MORE
Univ. Of South Florida, 2000:
ART STUDENT ATTEMPTS TO PERFORM NUDE
AT CAMPUS ART GALLERY. MORE
Back to Overview
USING
CAMPUS FACILITIES: DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE OR POSTING PUBLIC STATEMENTS
Brown Univ.,
1997: FEMINISTS RESPOND TO "SEXIST" POSTERS WITH
PARODIES ADVERTISING "GRAB AND FEEL
YOU UP PARTY." MORE
University of Oklahoma, 1998-99:
GRAFFITI, POSTERS, AND DISTRIBUTING LITERATURE: "FIGHT MULTI-CULTURALISM,"
"READ A DIRTY BOOK.” MORE
Northwestern Univ., Jan 2000:
A WHITE SUPREMACIST ATTEMPTS TO SET UP
A STUDENT CHAPTER OF HIS “HATE GROUP” AND APPEARS ON CAMPUS TO DISTRIBUTE
PAMPHLETS. MORE
Villanova University, 2000: OFFICIALS
CONFISCATE PRO-LIFE PUBLICATION.
MORE
Bates College, 1997: ADMINISTRATION
REMOVES GRAFFITI PROMOTING CAMPUS
GAY RIGHTS. MORE
Back to Overview
USE
OF CAMPUS FACILITIES: RESTRICTING USE OF CAMPUS PUBLIC SPACES
Univ. of Massachusetts, 1990-98:
UNIVERSITY REPRIMANDED FOR NOT ALLOWING
SPACE FOR A PUBLIC MEETING TO PROTEST A VISIT TO CAMPUS BY THE BISHOP OF
BOSTON. MORE
San Diego State Univ, 2000: EXOTIC
DANCERS NIXED AT THE SPRING FIESTA
MORE
S.U.N.Y. Binghamton, 2000: STUDENT
GOVERNMENT REQUEST FOR THE STUDENT
UNION RENTAL OUTLET TO STOCK X-RATED FILMS REJECTED.
MORE
Princeton Univ., 1999: "NUDE
OLYMPICS" BANNED BY TRUSTEES. MORE
Back to Overview
CONTROVERSIAL
SPEAKERS
(See the AAUP
Guidelines for Freedom of Expression)
Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2000:
WAS A READING FROM NOVEL ABOUT STUDENT
SUICIDES CONSIDERED TOO "CONTROVERSIAL"? MORE
Harding
Univ., 2000: APPEARANCE OF AUTHOR OF SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER
RESCINDED MORE
Stanford Univ, Nov. 1997: INVITATION
TO BLACK MUSLIM SPEAKER WITHDRAWN:
A FREE SPEECH OR FINANCIAL ISSUE? DID STANFORD ALLOW THE INSURANCE CARRIER
TO DETERMINE THE KIND OF SPEAKER THE UNIVERSITY WOULD ALLOW TO APPEAR?
MORE
Columbia University, 2000: JOHN
McCAIN'S APPEARANCE QUESTIONED: A FREE
SPEECH OR LEGAL ISSUE (FOR A NON-PROFIT INSTITUTION)?
MORE
Suffolk County Community College,
2000: NOTORIOUS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
VICTIM, CALLED POOR ROLE MODEL, PRESSURED TO CANCEL APPEARANCE.
MORE
Back to Overview
Robert Maynard
Hutchins (1899-1977), famous President of the University of Chicago, was
in retirement when, in 1959, a university publication came under attack
from clergy and the media for publishing writing by William Burroughs,
Jack Kerouc and other "Beat" poets. The current President of the university
buckled under to the attackers, cutting the publication's budget. Hutchins'
opinion was that it is a university's job to try to convince the community
that "offensive" writing is not necessarily evil. When literature
is honest and perceptive, the university's responsibility should
be, he said, to teach the community why it is important, not to apologize
and censor it.
ATTACKS
ON COURSES
Nassau Community College, 1999:
HUMAN SEXUALITY COURSE TAKEN TO COURT
MORE
Wesleyan (CT) University, 1999:
WILL A COURSE IN “PORNOGRAPHY: WRITING
OF PROSTITUTES” BE TAUGHT ANY LONGER? MORE
University of Michigan, 2000:
COURSE IN “HOW TO BE GAY: MALE HOMOSEXUALITY
AND INITIATION” CHALLENGED BY REGENT AND BY AMERICAN
FAMILY ASSOCIATION. MORE
Randolph (NC) Community College,
1998: COLLEGE DROPS HISTORY COURSE
WITH “PRO-CONFEDERACY” VIEWPOINT MORE
Back to Overview
Salman
Rushdie (b.1947) was sentenced to death by Ayatollah Komeini in 1989 for
blasphemy against the Koran in his novel The Satanic Verses. Many
book stores, including those on campuses, decided not to carry the novel
because of threats of violence if they did. "What is freedom of expression?"
he asked. "Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist."
USE
OF CAMPUS COMPUTERS, AND ACCEPTABLE USE POLICIES
Any messages ... offensive or
disruptive ... that contain sexual implications ... that comment offensively
on a person's race, sex, age, sexual orientation, ...." Click
here for a view of one company's "Big Brother" type warning to
its employees on how--and how not--to use its computers!
A
strong essay on harassment, "hostile environment," and campus speech
codes (including how students use computers). "I'm very suspicious when
authorities piously insist that *their* power is not a problem and that
the real problem is *our* racism, sexism, homophobia, etc."
A
good summary of types of Acceptable Use Policies re campus computers.
Univ. of Oklahoma, 1997: "BE
VERY AFRAID": UNIV. PRESIDENT REMOVES
ALT.SEX AND OTHER NEWSGROUPS FROM SERVER. MORE
Univ. of Arizona, 1998-99: BILL
REQUIRING UNIVERSITY TO FILTER SITES
DIES IN STATE LEGISLATURE MORE
Seattle Pacific Univ., 2000:
A RELIGIOUSLY-AFFILIATED UNIVERSITY BEGINS
BLOCKING “SEXUALLY-RELATED" WEBSITES MORE
City College of San Francisco;
Clemson University, 1999: STUDENT- POSTED
TEACHER EVALUATION WEBSITES CHALLENGED MORE
Georgia
State Univ., 1996: NEO-NAZI WEB SITE CENSORED: BURNING
DOWN THE HOUSE TO ROAST THE PIG?
IT IS TRUE, AS THE NAZI "LESSON IN HISTORY" TEACHES, THAT HATEFUL IDEAS
SOMETIMES WIN OUT OVER HUMANE ONES. IN A COLLEGE SETTING, HOW SHOULD THIS
LESSON BE TAUGHT, WITHOUT CENSORING THE NAZIS? MORE
Clemson
University, 2000: STUDENT ACCESS TO INTERNET LONG DISTANCE
SERVICE SUSPENDED, THEN, THROUGH MEDIATION, RESTORED
MORE
Back to Overview
Maya Angelou's
(b.1928) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is in the top 20
on the list of most frequently banned books in public schools. The scene
in which 8-year-old Maya is raped is often given as a reason the book is
unsuitable. Consider also this comment by a school superindentent
in MD: "If a child didn't have negative feelings about white people, this
could sow the seeds." Of course, one might have the confidence in his teachers
to believe that they would not present the book in that way . But for many
administrators, pleasing the public is the key consideration.
CAMPUS
RADIO BROADCASTS: COMMUNITY STANDARDS, SAFE HARBOR PERIODS, TIME, PLACE,
MANNER, AND THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MORE
St. Norbert College (MN), 1999:
PLUG PULLED ON READING OF CATCHER IN THE RYE, BUT COLLEGE LEARNS
FROM INCIDENT MORE
Siena (NY) College, 1999: HEAVY
METAL AND "SHOUT OUTS" BANNED MORE
Univ. of South Carolina, 1996:
OFFENSIVE SONGS RESULT IN FORCED RESIGNATION
OF STUDENT DISK JOCKEYS MORE
Back to Overview
POLITICAL
ADVERTISING IN CAMPUS PUBLICATIONS
Rutgers University, 1999: ADVERTISING
SPACE IN ALUMNI MAGAZINE DENIED
TO PROTESTING GROUP MORE
Back to Overview
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