jimnyc
09-27-2017, 12:56 PM
Yeps, been saying this for quite some time. Not sure there is any type of "fix" at all. It is what it is.
Oh, and Sessions is spot on of course.
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Sessions: ‘Freedom of Thought and Speech’ Are Under Attack on U.S.College Campuses
(CNSNews.com) - In a speech delivered at Georgetown University, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday warned that free speech is under attack on U.S. college campuses, citing recent examples where school administrators banned speech deemed offensive, set up “cramped” free speech zones, disinvited speakers and even offered counseling ahead of planned speeches.
Sessions pointed to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that found that 40 percent of U.S. college speech codes “substantially infringe” on protected speech.
“In 2017, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education surveyed 450 colleges and universities across the country and found that 40 percent maintain speech codes that substantially infringe on constitutionally protected speech. Of the public colleges surveyed, which are bound by the First Amendment, fully one-third had written policies banning disfavored speech,” he said.
Sessions cited some example of university policies that infringe on free speech.
“For example, at Boise State University in Idaho, the Student Code of Conduct prohibits ‘[c]onduct that a reasonable person would find offensive.’ At Clemson University in South Carolina, the Student Code of Conduct bans any verbal or physical act that creates an ‘offensive educational, work or living environment,’” the attorney general said.
“But who decides what is offensive and what is acceptable? The university is about the search for truth, not the imposition of truth by a government censor,” he said.
In another example of university speech codes that infringe on constitutionally protected free speech, Sessions pointed to “free speech zones” that some colleges set up.
“In addition to written speech codes, many colleges now deign to ‘tolerate’ free speech only in certain, geographically limited, ‘free speech zones.’ For example, a student recently filed suit against Pierce College, a public school in southern California, alleging that it prohibited him from distributing Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution outside the school’s free speech zone,” he said.
“The size of this free speech zone? 616 square feet—an area barely the size of a couple of college dorm rooms. These cramped zones are eerily similar to what the Supreme Court warned against in the seminal 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case about student speech: ‘Freedom of expression would not truly exist if the right could be exercised only in an area that a benevolent government has provided as a safe haven,’” he added.
Furthermore, some colleges “silenced speech” with “the heckler’s veto,” a way to control who speaks and what they can say, Sessions noted.
Rest - https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-arter/sessions-freedom-thought-and-speech-are-under-attack-uscollege-campuses
Oh, and Sessions is spot on of course.
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Sessions: ‘Freedom of Thought and Speech’ Are Under Attack on U.S.College Campuses
(CNSNews.com) - In a speech delivered at Georgetown University, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday warned that free speech is under attack on U.S. college campuses, citing recent examples where school administrators banned speech deemed offensive, set up “cramped” free speech zones, disinvited speakers and even offered counseling ahead of planned speeches.
Sessions pointed to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that found that 40 percent of U.S. college speech codes “substantially infringe” on protected speech.
“In 2017, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education surveyed 450 colleges and universities across the country and found that 40 percent maintain speech codes that substantially infringe on constitutionally protected speech. Of the public colleges surveyed, which are bound by the First Amendment, fully one-third had written policies banning disfavored speech,” he said.
Sessions cited some example of university policies that infringe on free speech.
“For example, at Boise State University in Idaho, the Student Code of Conduct prohibits ‘[c]onduct that a reasonable person would find offensive.’ At Clemson University in South Carolina, the Student Code of Conduct bans any verbal or physical act that creates an ‘offensive educational, work or living environment,’” the attorney general said.
“But who decides what is offensive and what is acceptable? The university is about the search for truth, not the imposition of truth by a government censor,” he said.
In another example of university speech codes that infringe on constitutionally protected free speech, Sessions pointed to “free speech zones” that some colleges set up.
“In addition to written speech codes, many colleges now deign to ‘tolerate’ free speech only in certain, geographically limited, ‘free speech zones.’ For example, a student recently filed suit against Pierce College, a public school in southern California, alleging that it prohibited him from distributing Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution outside the school’s free speech zone,” he said.
“The size of this free speech zone? 616 square feet—an area barely the size of a couple of college dorm rooms. These cramped zones are eerily similar to what the Supreme Court warned against in the seminal 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case about student speech: ‘Freedom of expression would not truly exist if the right could be exercised only in an area that a benevolent government has provided as a safe haven,’” he added.
Furthermore, some colleges “silenced speech” with “the heckler’s veto,” a way to control who speaks and what they can say, Sessions noted.
Rest - https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-arter/sessions-freedom-thought-and-speech-are-under-attack-uscollege-campuses