(2012). Spotlight on Speech Codes 2012: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation's Campuses. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (NJ1) The U.S. Supreme Court has called America's colleges and universities "vital centers for the Nation's intellectual life," but the reality today is that many of these institutions severely restrict free speech and open debate. Speech codes–policies prohibiting student and faculty speech that would, outside the bounds of campus, be protected by the First Amendment–have repeatedly been struck down by federal and state courts. Yet they persist, even in the very jurisdictions where they have been ruled unconstitutional; the majority of American colleges and universities have speech codes. FIRE surveyed 392 schools for this report and found that 65% maintain severely restrictive speech codes–policies that clearly and substantially prohibit protected speech. That this figure is so large is deeply troubling, but there is a small silver lining: It represents a decline in the percentage of schools maintaining such policies for the fourth year in a row. In another encouraging… [PDF]
(2013). Academe's Still-Precarious Freedom. Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. For years, libertarians had fought laws and policies barring Communists from teaching as direct assaults on the First Amendment, while supporters of loyalty programs had painted all Communists as mental slaves of Moscow. In 1952 the Supreme Court upheld New York's 1949 Feinberg Law, which required detailed procedures for investigating the loyalty of every public-school teacher and ousting anyone who had engaged in \treasonable or seditious acts or utterances\ or joined an organization that advocated the overthrow of the government by \force, violence, or any unlawful means.\ It was a typical cold-war-era loyalty law; hence, \Adler v. Board of Education,\ the Supreme Court's 1952 decision upholding it, had nationwide repercussions. In \Adler,\ a majority of the court found no First Amendment problem with the Feinberg Law. Embracing the anti-Communist fervor of the time, the court said that teachers had no right to their jobs; and because they worked \in a sensitive area\ where they… [Direct]
(2018). Ruffled Feathers: "The Great Speckled Bird" as a Record of Student and Youth Activism in Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeast, 1968-1976. American Educational History Journal, v45 n1 p39-54. The sixties and seventies were a time of great cultural, social, and political change in the United States. Events including civil rights demonstrations, anti-war protests, environmental movements, and gender rights sparked activism among students and young people across the country. In order for American youth to mobilize, they turned to alternative media outlets to disseminate information about their causes. "The Great Speckled Bird" (commonly referred to as "The Bird") was an example of such an alternative newspaper that was published in Atlanta, Georgia from 1968-1976 and reported on student and youth activism concerning the Vietnam War, LGBTQ issues, race, environmental matters, and corporate and political corruption. "The Bird" serves as an important historical record of student activism in Atlanta and the Southeast during the sixties and seventies. Through examination of the Georgia State University Labor Archive's digitized collection of… [Direct]
(2012). FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus. Second Edition. FIRE's Guides to Student Rights on Campus. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (NJ1) Since its first publication in 2005, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has distributed more than 138,000 print and online copies of its "Guide to Free Speech on Campus." In that time, FIRE's commitment to advocating on behalf of the essential rights discussed in the pages that follow has remained unwavering; however, threats to free speech on campus have evolved sufficiently over the past six years to necessitate a new, revised edition of this "Guide." Campuses have changed, too–in many cases, for the better, as students educated by this book have worked with FIRE to fight for student rights by reforming unconstitutional and illiberal speech codes and ending myriad abuses of student liberties. In addition to its more than 200 public victories and many more private ones, FIRE has impacted the legal landscape as well; several of the new cases cited in this "Guide" are the result of FIRE's coordinated challenges to illiberal and… [PDF]
(2019). Higher Education's Road to Relevance: Navigating Complexity. Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley The post-secondary educational system has undergone dramatic changes and experienced immense stress in the past two decades. Once regarded as the logical next step toward career opportunities and financial security, higher education is a subject of growing uncertainty for millions of people across the United States. It is more common than ever to question the return on investment, skyrocketing cost, and student debt burden of going to college. Prospective students, and many employers, increasingly view attending institutions of higher learning as inadequate preparation for entering the 21st century workforce. High-profile scandals–financial impropriety, sexual abuse, restrictions of free speech, among others–have further eroded public trust. In response to these and other challenges, leading voices are demanding strengthened accountability and measurable change. "Higher Education's Road to Relevance" illustrates why change is needed in post-secondary education and offers… [Direct]
(2019). The Role of Competitive Debating in Skills and Knowledge Building among ESL Learners in Tunisia. Online Submission, Journal of Teaching and Education v9 n1 p67-75. The political scene in Tunisia has drastically changed since the 2011 revolution. It has paved the way for free expression to become an essential component applicable to everyday life. It was thus fundamental to introduce competitive debating as a tool necessary to mediate and organize free speech inside educational practices. Although debating is not officially integrated into the Tunisian national curriculum, it has been adopted by ESL teachers because it has the power to radically transform English language instruction and reception. Indeed, debating has become an absolute necessity in building analytical and reflective learners who are also socially and politically conscious. While a plethora of anecdotal evidence exists on the importance of debating, no previous work has closely examined the role of competitive debating in Tunisia in creating better-skilled and more knowledgeable ESL learners. First, this paper investigates a case study of 18 Tunisian ESL learners aged 15-18 who… [PDF]
(2012). Free Speech or Bias: A Study on the Impact of Hate Speech in Higher Education. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Capella University. The phenomenon of hate speech on a college campus is an extremely complex issue as the prevalence and impact are intertwined within a multifaceted social construct. What is termed appropriate within one subculture or group may be seen as derogatory, offensive, or harassing to another group. Race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status all provide substance and context for the development of a socially constructed identity and corresponding worldview. Through a series of structured observations, a field questionnaire, and individual interviews, this observational case study employed a qualitative design derived from the social constructivist worldview. Students noted anger and emotional pain when discussing how they were impacted when hate speech was directed toward them; however, they were more impassioned in their reactions to witnessing or observing incidents of hate speech inflicted on others. The policies and procedures created on a college campus for speech… [Direct]
(2018). Walls, Halls and Doors: First Amendment Issues for Public Spaces in Housing. Journal of College and University Student Housing, v44 n3 p80-95. Residential communities are a critical component of many students' experience on a college campus, especially during their first year. Residential communities have been associated with a variety of positive outcomes, including persistence, openness to diversity, satisfaction, critical thinking, and personal development (Astin, 1977 & 1993; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Pike, Kuh & Gonyea, 2003; Terenzini, Springer, Pascarella & Nora, 1995). An important part of the students' residential experience is being able to represent who they are and what they value. This is often done within the confines of the private residence hall room or apartment, but just as frequently in the externally-facing venues physically attached to the private living space: bulletin boards, whiteboards, doors, and windows. While this form of communication is protected by the first amendment as freedom of expression, more and more housing programs are being challenged by the need to balance… [Direct]
(2010). Mock Trial: A Window to Free Speech Rights and Abilities. Social Studies, v101 n6 p242-249. This article provides some strategies to alleviate the current tensions between personal responsibility and freedom of speech rights in the public school classroom. The article advocates the necessity of making sure students understand the points and implications of the first amendment by providing a mock trial unit concerning free speech rights. This unit not only teaches the rules of civility in a courtroom, it also presents a free speech case based upon one that actually happened in a public school classroom. Direct involvement in this case provides a safe environment for students to grapple openly with free speech limits. (Contains 1 figure and 11 notes.)… [Direct]
(2022). Failure to Communicate How American Progressive Neoliberal Campus Policies Contribute to Conservative Mistrust of Higher Education and Skepticism towards Research on Anthropogenic Global Warming. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Colorado State University. When conservatives believe American universities implement policies that limit their free speech rights and demean their social identities, their support for the institution can decline. Negative partisanship and political polarization push consumption of agreeable media and distrust of antagonistic media, which means conservative media and social media are a major source of information about the contemporary university system for that population. I hypothesize that this is an important variable, among many, in understanding why conservatives reject environmental research on topics such as Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). To explain this phenomenon, I begin by reviewing the current research on conservative skepticism of AGW. I add to this literature through a treatment effect experiment I conducted, which reaffirms the findings of others that those on the political right perceive themselves as under threat on campus, which impacts their experiences in the classroom and their views… [Direct]
(2016). Safety, Dignity and the Quest for a Democratic Campus Culture. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, v24 n1 p79-85. In his excellent paper, Callan (2016) differentiates intellectual safety, which fosters smugness, indifference and lack of effort, from dignity safety, which is needed for participation, learning and engagement. He suggests that college classrooms that reject the first and espouse the second would be ones that focus on "cultivating open-mindedness in a context of disagreement and fostering the civility that would secure dignity safety for all" (p. 75). This is an important goal, and Callan makes here a significant contribution to the current discussion–both scholarly and public–on free speech, academic freedom and dignity safety. In what follows, I: (1) expand on the suggestion that dignity safety is a threshold condition, contextualizing its role in providing access and on its place in the continuum of safety requirements, (2) consider the overlaps between dignity safety and intellectual safety, and subsequently reject nobility as an appropriate basis for creating a… [PDF]
(2016). Regime Changes and Uprisings in the Middle East and Parts of North Africa: Some Lessons to Be Learnt. Journal of Education and Practice, v7 n2 p107-117. The event leading to the death of Mohammed Bouzazi in Tunisia in 2009 brought to light the dehumanized conditions which an average Tunis had been subjected to at the hands of the Tunisian government. The death of Bouzazi lead to street protests and demonstrations by thousands of demonstrators, calling for political reforms, free speech, improved conditions of living, etc, in Tunisia. As a result of this, the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali came to an end. With this success, citizens of other neighbouring countries in North Africa that had similar problems went to the streets asking for reform changes in their countries. These countries include Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, etc. What later on followed is now history. Therefore, in this work, an overview of the events that led to the uprisings in the affected countries would be looked into. The aftermaths of these uprisings are no doubt what one should ponder upon. This is with a view to analysing the lessons to be learnt from… [PDF]
(2018). Freedom of Speech and the Communication Discipline: Defending the Value of Low-Value Speech. Wicked Problems Forum: Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities. Communication Education, v67 n2 p245-253. Heated battles over free speech have erupted on college campuses across the United States in recent months. Some of the most prominent incidents involve efforts by students to prevent public appearances by speakers espousing controversial viewpoints. Efforts to silence offensive speakers on college campuses are not new; in these endeavors, one can hear echoes from the late 1980s and early 1990s. There is, of course, a meaningful distinction between organized efforts by students to silence speakers and policies adopted by colleges and universities to protect students from objectionable speech. It is, however, important to note that these efforts share a common motivation: They involve questions about the reach of the First Amendment in situations that involve structured or unstructured efforts to silence speakers or suppress ideas that some members of the community deem offensive. To assess the desirability of these efforts, it is necessary to consider the value of the speech being… [Direct]
(2013). The Internet, Free Speech, and Schools: Why the Courts Have It Wrong and Why Parents and Schools Need to Get It Right. Independent School, v72 n2 Win. On the morning of December 16, 1965, in Des Moines, Iowa, a 13-year-old junior high school student named Beth Tinker got dressed and went to school. She wore a black armband to protest the war in Vietnam. The school promptly suspended her for wearing a symbol of political dissent. So began one of the nation's most celebrated cases involving student free speech, commonly known as "Tinker." Four years later, the United States Supreme Court famously declared that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Schools could no longer discipline students for expressing their opinion unless it involved a "substantial disruption" or met other, limited restrictions. Though independent schools are typically not bound by the constraints of the First Amendment (California private secondary schools are the notable exception), "Tinker" and its progeny still resonate. The desire of students to… [Direct]
(2021). Freedom of Expression on the University Campus: An Examination of Policy Rhetoric at Public Universities. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana State University. Freedom of expression has historically been an issue in the United States on college and university campuses. With the recent rise of movements such as Black Lives Matter and Times Up, it is critically important that policies that govern student behavior reflect the constitutionally guaranteed right of students to engage in free speech. This study seeks to examine and compare policy and statement rhetoric that act as guidelines for freedom of expression on the public university campus. This study is significant because it will assist higher education administrators in framing a conversation surrounding freedom of expression policies at their respective higher education institutions. This study is also significant because there has been no similar comparative study that examines the rhetoric of higher education policies surrounding freedom of expression. This study utilizes Chouliaraki and Fairclough's (1999) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to explore and examine policy… [Direct]