Image 01 Image 03

Free Speech Tag

The Department of Education announced Wednesday that the Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities final rule will "ensure that public institutions of higher education uphold fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and that private institutions of higher education adhere to their own policies regarding freedom of speech, including academic freedom."

Professor Greg Patton teaches at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. During a recent online lesson, he spoke about how different words can sound in different languages. Without any apparent harmful intent, he pointed out how something sounds in Chinese, and some people heard a racist word. He has since been placed on temporary leave.

I had heard of Charles Negy, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Florida (UCF). What I heard seemed like a particularly egregious example of cancel culture that is purging academia and imposing uniformity of opinion, particularly with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement. Having looked into it more, it's worse than I realized.