Newsletter

January 2007

FIRE Press Release: Report Finds Rampant Censorship At American Colleges And Universities

Greg Lukianoff

PHILADELPHIA, December 6, 2006 — A report released today by the Foundation for
Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reveals that burdensome restrictions on
speech are commonplace at America’s colleges and universities. The report,
entitled Spotlight on Speech Codes 2006: The State of Free Speech on Our
Nation’s Campuses, surveyed more than 330 schools and found that an
overwhelming majority of them explicitly prohibit speech that, outsidethe
borders of campus, is protected bytheFirst Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.

“There is a common misconception that ‘speech codes’ are a thing of the past—a
relic of the heyday of political correctness of the 1980s and 90s—but the public
needs to know that speech codes are perhaps more pervasive and restrictive than
ever,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said.

FIRE’s report is the most comprehensive effort to date to quantify both the
number of colleges and universities that restrict free speech and the severity
of those restrictions. The report surveyed publicly available policies at the
100 “Best National Universities” and at the 50 “Best Liberal Arts Colleges,” as
rated in the August 29, 2005 “America’s Best Colleges” issue of U.S. News &
World Report, as well as at an additional 184 major public universities. The
research was conducted between September 2005 and September 2006. All of the
policies cited in the report are available on FIRE’s searchable speech codes
database, Spotlight: The Campus Freedom Resource.

The
report’s findings include:

• Public
  colleges and universities are disregarding their constitutional obligations.
  More than 73% of public universities surveyed maintain unconstitutional
  speech codes, despite numerous federal court decisions striking down similar
  or identical policies.
• Most
  private colleges and universities promise free speech, but usually do not
  deliver. Unlike public universities, private universities are not legally
  bound by the First Amendment. However, most of them explicitly promise free
  speech rights to their students and faculty. For example, Boston University
  promises “the right to teach and to learn in an atmosphere of unfettered
  free inquiry and exposition.” Unfortunately, it also prohibits speech that
  would be constitutionally protected in society at large, such as “annoying”
  electronic communications and expressions of opinion that do not “show
  respect for the aesthetic, social, moral, and religious feelings of
  others.”

Overall, the report reveals that more than 68% of the colleges and universities
surveyed maintain policies that “both clearly and substantially restrict freedom
of speech.” Overbroad and vague speech codes from the 2005-2006 academic year
include:

• Macalester
  College bans “speech that makes use of inappropriate words or non-verbals.”
• Furman
  University bans any “offensive communication not in keeping with community
  standards.”
• At the
  University of Mississippi, “offensive language is not to be used” over the
  telephone.
• The
  University of North Carolina–Greensboro prohibits “disrespect for persons.”

At
the report’s conclusion, FIRE suggests several potential solutions to the
problem of speech codes. As the report notes, many of the speech codes cited at
public universities would likely not survive a legal challenge. FIRE’s Speech
Codes Litigation Project has already led to the demise of similar codes at
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Texas Tech University, Citrus College,
and the State University of New York at Brockport. The report also suggests that
public exposure is a highly effective weapon against speech codes, since
“neither our nation’s courts nor its people look favorably upon speech codes or
other restrictions on basic freedoms.”

“Speech codes have lost in the courts whenever they have been challenged, and
they are a failure with the public who rightfully believe that colleges and
universities rely on free speech in order to function. Speech codes should be
relegated to the dustbin of history, and FIRE will keep fighting until they are
gone,” Lukianoff said.