An employee at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis was (sort of) absolved this month after being reprimanded for reading a book about the history of the Ku Klux Klan during a break from his janitorial work last November.
The employee, Keith Sampson (also a student at the university), apparently hit a nerve with coworkers when they noticed […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 9th, 2008
A Connecticut high school junior is suing her school after administrators disciplined her for using “vulgar speech” on a personal blog.
The student, who was upset about the cancellation of a music festival, called the administration “douchebags” and implored other students contact the school superintendent and “piss him off.”
The school subsequently banned the girl from […]
Read Full Post »
A student at Valdosta State University in Georgia, expelled last year for posting activist flyers on Facebook, says he still doesn’t understand why the administration took such extreme action against him.
The student, Hayden Barnes, was attempting to raise awareness about a new parking garage development being built on campus when he posted the flyer in […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 24th, 2008
The campus gossip website JuicyCampus.com is attracting some negative attention from people who have been offended by the site’s racy content.
JuicyCampus, which has been banned on several college campuses, is a message board that enables users to anonymously post malicious comments about other students – one enlightening post asks, “What sorority houses do the […]
Read Full Post »
The editorial staff of an online student newspaper at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been ordered to undergo diversity training after the paper published a column containing anti-Asian remarks.
The column, which was initially defended as a satirical piece, advocated that students “hunt” for Asian students at the school, “hog-tie” them, and force them to participate in demeaning activities until “the Asian spirit has been broken.”
The university chancellor apologized Wednesday on behalf of the Campus Press and columnist Max Karsen, adding that “while his column is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment, the sentiments he has expressed are wounding and damaging to a community we hold dear.”
Continue Reading –>
Read Full Post »
Friday afternoon I had the privilege of talking with Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. We discussed a range of issues relating to free speech on college campuses - from the power of the student press to the limits imposed by campus speech codes.
Mr. Policinski recently wrote a column […]
Read Full Post »
Typically when you hear about a college newspaper being threatened with censorship, budget cuts or a publication freeze, the university administration is the agent pulling the plug. Not so at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where the student governing board ordered the student-run Montclairion newspaper to stop the presses in the midst of threatened […]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Freedom of Religion on Feb 10th, 2008
Professor Guillermo Gonzalez, known at Iowa State University as a vocal supporter of intelligent design theory, is well aware of the controversy his views have stirred up over the years.
One indicator could have been the 2005 circulation of a campus-wide petition denouncing intelligent design (the belief that the universe was deliberately created by a […]
Read Full Post »
