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Free Speech Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on October 13, 2016 8 Comments
Starting this month, Brown University is hosting a lecture series on the importance of freedom of expression. Anyone who has been following news out of Rhode Island's only Ivy League school for the last few years will appreciate the richness of that. A Brown alum named Rob Montz described the situation in an op-ed at USA Today:
What happened to American universities? On October 11, Brown University is hosting the first in a new series of lectures on the proper balance between “freedom of expression, tolerance, and inclusion” on college campuses.

Posted by Miriam Elman on October 04, 2016 3 Comments
Last month, Syracuse University (SU) made headlines when a faculty member in the Religious Studies Department dis-invited an award-winning Israeli NYU Professor and filmmaker from a campus event out of fear of offending the political sensibilities of her BDS-supporting colleagues (see our prior posts covering the story). At the time, pro-BDS faculty signed a petition (subsequently posted onto Facebook) denying that any pressure to disinvite the filmmaker had existed and expressing their commitment to free speech and academic freedom. But now many of these same professors, keen on moving the campus in a BDS direction, are making demands that call into question this articulated devotion to a campus community open to free expression.

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 30, 2016 30 Comments
The Young America's Foundation chapter at the University of California Los Angeles is hosting a lecture by conservative feminist Christina Hoff Sommers but campus feminists find that offensive and took it upon themselves to tear down campus flyers. The YAF blog reports:
WATCH: CSULA Feminists Tear Down YAF Fliers for Sommers Lecture Thursday morning, members of the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at California State University- Los Angeles (CSULA) caught a pair of disgruntled feminists on camera tearing down flyers advertising the group’s lecture with Christina Hoff Sommers scheduled for Oct. 4.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2016 15 Comments
The University of Tennessee  at Knoxville apparently doesn't want to take on the leader of the Army of Davids. We reported the other day that UTK was "investigating" Prof. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit over the tweet suggesting that drivers surrounded by the violent racist mobs of rioters on Charlotee highways "run them down," Twitter suspends Instapundit for suggesting people not become victims of racist thug rioters (Update): Instapundit Tweet Charlotte Riots Any reasonable person would have understood that tweet to mean that if threatened with deadly force by the rioters, you could escape by driving through the mob. That tweet and advice was consistent with the law of self-defense.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 16, 2016 14 Comments
The saga of the two John Doe investigations of Scott Walker, his supporters and almost the entire Wisconsin conservative movement has been covered here dozens of times. It was a nasty, vicious investigation which saw military-style raids in the middle of the night. (note: Michael Lutz in this interview from late April 2015 committed suicide in late July). Here are some key posts in our extensive coverage of the John Doe investigation:

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 14, 2016 34 Comments
Last fall at Yale University, an administrator and professor named Nicholas Christakis, Master of Silliman College at Yale was confronted by a mob of angry students over a nontroversy regarding Halloween costumes and cultural appropriation. Christakis and his wife, who also worked at the school, ultimately resigned over this. We covered the story, see here and here. New videos of the confrontation have been posted online by Tablet Magazine which shed new light on the situation. It was much worse than anyone knew.

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 10, 2016 0 Comments

The CATO Institute has released a new study which confirms what a growing number of Americans already know. Our colleges and universities have serious free speech issues. From the report: Freedom of Speech under Assault on Campus Freedom of speech has been severely criticized at many American universities. Meanwhile,...

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 07, 2016 4 Comments
Last week, we posted a story about Clemson University in which a student and a man who was not a student were stopped while praying on campus. The administrator who stopped them claimed they weren't in a free speech area. The story went national because free speech is an ongoing issue on college campuses and also because Clemson is a public university, meaning the whole campus is a free speech zone. Campus Reform reports that some students organized to speak out:
Clemson students rally against ‘free speech zones’ Several dozen students and local community members gathered at Clemson University Friday afternoon to protest against the administration for not allowing a man to pray with students.
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