Free Speech on Campus: A Depressing Update

UGH.  

Thank goodness for FIRE and sensible campus defenders of free speech like Chicago.  Remember, kids: speech codes are unconstitutional!  I should report, too, that not every campus is a basket case: the student government at UC Santa Barbara just voted in favor of free speech ... though I have to shake my head that this is even an issue at all.

Campus Culture: a lecture by Professor Gad Saad

I had not previously encountered evolutionary psychologist Gad Saad of Concordia University  (his faculty website is here), but I found this recent lecture of his to be fascinating indeed.

Nerd News: Campus Protests and Free Speech

Worth a read.

Nerd Journal: As the Spring Semester Ends, One Last Lesson

Class is in session one last time.  Repeat after me: You do not give up your civil liberties and individual rights when you set foot on campus.

Got that?  No?  Write it out 100 times by hand then.

As a fellow teacher and I were just saying, thank goodness for FIRE.  Keep fighting the good fight, my friends.  Support and defend academic freedom, uphold the civil liberties of students (and faculty!), and abolish all campus speech codes!  (Why?  Because they are evil, muzzling, and blatantly unconstitutional, that's why, and because - to put it baldly - you do not have a right to never be offended.) 

A Law Professor Considers the University of Oklahoma Speech Kerfuffle

The umpteenth reminder: free speech also protects speech that you don't like.

Here's a bit of it:

Though some ignorant people argue that "hate speech" is unprotected under the First Amendment, that is not the law and never has been. Nor should it be. The test of our commitment to free expression, after all, isn't our willingness to tolerate speech that everyone likes. If you only support free speech for ideas you agree with, you're a hack. If you only support free speech for ideas that everyone agrees with, you're a coward. 

Quote of the Day: Campus Speech Codes

Here's a piece of it:

The increased calls for sensitivity-based censorship represent the dark side of what are otherwise several positive developments for human civilization. ... I believe that we are not passing through some temporary phase in which an out-of-touch and hypersensitive elite attempts — and often fails — to impose its speech-restrictive norms on society. It’s worse than that: people all over the globe are coming to expect emotional and intellectual comfort as though it were a right. This is precisely what you would expect when you train a generation to believe that they have a right not to be offended. Eventually, they stop demanding freedom of speech and start demanding freedom from speech.

Campus speech codes are unconstitutional.  You don't give up your First Amendment rights once you step onto a campus, and you have no right to never be offended.

Oh, related link here.  Apparently it's just as bad  on the other side of the pond.

Nerd News: FIRE vs. Campus Speech Codes

You don't give up your First Amendment protections when you set foot on a campus. I hate speech codes ... and so does FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education).  It just announced these lawsuits yesterday:

“Unconstitutional campus speech codes have been a national scandal for decades. But today, 25 years after the first of the modern generation of speech codes was defeated in court, 58% of public campuses still hold onto shockingly illiberal codes,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “For 15 years, FIRE has fought for free speech on campus using public awareness as our main weapon, but more is needed. Today, we announce the launch of the Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, an expansive new campaign to eliminate speech codes nationwide. We have already coordinated two lawsuits in the past nine months, and this morning we brought four more. The lawsuits will continue until campuses understand that time is finally up for unconstitutional speech codes in academia.”

The Department of Education Fails Voltaire 101

Geez, I hate the DOE.  How many times do I have to say it?  YOU DON'T GIVE UP YOUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS WHEN YOU STEP ONTO CAMPUS.  Campus speech codes are evil, and this latest version even more evil than before.  Let the lawsuits begin!  

Nerd News: A Horrible Campus Speech Code

Unbelievable.  Comply or be expelled.  You know, you don't lose your constitutional rights when you step onto your campus.

Nerd News: University of Wisconsin Professor In Trouble for His "Firefly" Posters

You have got to be kidding me.  More here.  The "dirtbag" and "behaving badly" tags refer not to the professor, but to his persecutors.

Nerd Notes: Campus Speech Codes Are Both Evil and Stupid

Not, of course, that you needed a reminder.  You should not have to give up your Constitutional freedoms and protections once you get on campus.

Nerd News: Free Speech on College Campuses

Free speech should not be a Constitutional right that you give up as soon as you set foot on your university campus.  Is your alma mater among these 12 campuses that squash free speech, be it with one of those obnoxious "campus speech codes" that I hate so much, or some other way?  Note that the only Ivy League school in this list of 12 nasties is ... Yale.  More from Insta-Prof.

Nerd News: Censorship, Speech Codes, and the Closing of the Student Mind

Here's food for thought.  Heaven forfend that you actually think a single thought that has not been approved by the Edu-crats On High!

Nerd News: University Speech Codes Reborn as "Anti-Bullying" Rules?

The fight for free speech on campus continues, I see. 

Nerd News: Political Correctness on Campus

Here are a few thoughts.

Nerd News: UVA Repeals Its Campus Speech Code

YES!  Another win for freedom of speech on campus.  But let's not rest until every campus speech code is put into the dustbin.  Meanwhile, well done, University of Virginia.  Your famous founder, I think, would be pleased.

Nerd Analysis: The Psychology of Taboo

Check out these thoughts by Steven Pinker, psychologist and linguist at Harvard (from a recent speech of his).  Here is a bit of Pinker:

It brings up a phenomenon called the Psychology of Taboo, the sensation that certain ideas are evil to think. Quite apart from the fact, of course, that certain actions are evil to commit, but can it be sinful even to think a thought? 

OK, theology aside (where, say, lust is arguably a sin of the mind as much as the flesh), the real point for me is the intersection between this idea and the institutional policing force of campuses (hello, recall the First Amendment poison that is otherwise known as "campus speech codes"?).  Note too how the taboo mentality is deeply inimical to actual academic freedom (not the faux variety trumpeted by lockstepping campus leftists).

Nerd News: 1 Campus Speech Code Down, A Gazillion Left to Go

Here is the happy news:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday rejected as unconstitutional several parts of the code of conduct for students at the University of the Virgin Islands. Specifically, the court rejected bans on "offensive" speech and on language that causes "emotional distress," finding that such regulations were far too broad, and could easily limit legitimate freedom of expression. The ruling was consistent with other federal appeals courts rulings, which have generally barred public universities from regulating similar categories of speech.

Yes.  More, please.  Faster, please.  The US Constitution guarantees your right to expression.  It does NOT guarantee a right to not to be offended.  I hate campus speech codes.  Also, as I have always believed, your constitutional rights do not stop when you get on campus.  *MM hugs her First Amendment.*