The “New” Freedom
May 7, 2009
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Posted by Michael S. Langston
In an effort at thought control, many organizations these days use speech codes to cloak their true ambitions and the world of US Colleges is no different.
As reported by FIRE (articles here, here, and here), colleges everywhere & the NCAA believe without question they are entitled to police not only campus speech, but student speech on Facebook and in other public venues as well.
According to the actions of several universities, the mere act of one student placing text someplace that might offend another student, is grounds for disciplinary action. & apparently, this is also regardless of any potential facts.
@ The University of Chicago:
…On January 19, 2009, University of Chicago student Andrew Thompson posted a photograph “album” on his personal Facebook page. The title of the album was “[Name of ex-girlfriend] cheated on me, and you’re next!” Some of the photographs in the album were of Thompson’s ex-girlfriend, and dozens of the photographs were not. On January 19 and 20, a number of people other than Thompson posted comments about the allegation of cheating. One person wrote, “Seriously though, what a f***ing whore” (language redacted).
On January 20 at about 9:00 a.m., Thompson’s ex-girlfriend sent Susan Art, Dean of Students in the College, an e-mail claiming that the album’s title and the third-party comments on the title constituted “libel.” The woman stated that Thompson had refused to change the title of the album upon her request and asked Art “if this could be removed quietly and quickly from the internet.”
At 2:00 p.m., Art e-mailed Thompson, revealing the entire content of the ex-girlfriend’s e-mail, and demanded the censorship of Thompson’s album:
[Name of ex-girlfriend] has brought to my attention that you have posted her name on [F]acebook and that this has drawn some critical comments from others. I am writing to ask you to remove her name and remove the pictures you have posted of her. We have an expectation that members of the University community treat each other “with dignity and respect.” This kind of post is disrespectful. I know you think it is a joke, but it is very upsetting to her.
Can you let me know when her name and her pictures are removed from your [F]acebook page?
I expect this to happen right away.
Very shortly afterward, Thompson complied with Art’s censorship demands, but he resisted the idea that a University of Chicago dean could censor his protected speech. On January 21, he asked her by e-mail, “Can the university really regulate internet speech? I did not say anything subjective or false, so I don’t see how I can be forced to do this…”
In a very troubling response e-mailed to Thompson later that day, Art essentially declared that the university’s Student Manual [of] University Policies and Regulations permits censorship of “disrespectful” speech:
Every member of the University – student, faculty, and staff – makes a commitment to strive for personal and academic integrity; to treat others with dignity and respect; to honor the rights and property of others; to take responsibility for individual and group behavior; and to act as a responsible citizen in a free academic community and in the larger society. Any student conduct, on or off campus, of individuals or groups, that threatens or violates this commitment may become a matter for action within the University’s system of student discipline….
& this is not an isolated incident. Colleges and universities all over have speech codes to regulate hurtful or offensive speech, as if kind and benevolent speech was in need of protection in the first place.
Even the beloved Professor Noam Chomsky said, “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
I think that sums up current academia policies and actions well – they don’t believe in freedom of anything, only in the control of everything.
Categories: Education, NGOs, Political Philosophy
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Tags: FIRE, Freedom of Speech, NGOs, Speech Codes
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