This country is now entering its fourth week of debate over whether the phrase “nappy headed hos” is acceptable speech in a public forum. But as the media focuses on the issue of free speech in broadcast, they overlook a venue where first amendment rights are regularly violated: academia. A story from the University of Rhode Island this week suggests that free speech rights are threatened on many campuses. While making phony paeans to “tolerance,” universities use unconstitutional speech codes to suppress ideas that don’t sit well with the politically correct crowd.
The controversy at Rhode Island began last fall, when the College Republicans advertised a satirical “white heterosexual American male” scholarship in the school newspaper. College Republicans president Ryan Bilodeau said the ad was meant to be a humorous spin on affirmative action and identity-based scholarships.
Is a satirical ad in a school newspaper “speech”? Anyone with minimal understanding of the first amendment would say yes. But the Student Senate didn’t think so and declared that the ad violated URI’s anti-discrimination bylaws. The Senate told the group to apologize or face derecognition, an action that would cut off university funding.
But the College Republicans refused to apologize for something they weren’t sorry about, and on April 23, a Student Senate committee voted to derecognize the group. They only backed down when the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) threatened a first amendment lawsuit.
If you assume that selective censorship, forced apologies, and illegal bans on “offensive” speech are isolated incidents, think again. Groups like FIRE receive thousands of complaints each year, mostly from conservative or religious students whose universities apply speech codes only to them. Examples are not difficult to find:
- In October, San Francisco State University attempted to punish the College Republicans for stomping on Hezbollah and Hamas flags during an anti-terrorism rally.
- Administrators at Stetson University forbade students from distributing a conservative newsletter on campus because “elements of the publication lack sensitivity to and respect for diversity and inclusiveness,” according to a statement issued by the university.
- Professors in the Washington State University School of Education threatened to remove a conservative student from the teacher training program unless he attended “diversity training” classes.
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