Friday, February 03, 2017


Model Legislation to Protect Free Speech on Campus

On many of our college and university campuses, speaking freely is an act of bravery — if you disagree with the prevailing leftist notions about the world. Speech codes, “bias incident” systems, the mania over “microaggressions,” speaker disinvitations, and other features of contemporary college life tell non-progressives that they should just keep silent, while telling progressives that they are doing the right thing in trying to shut down debate over competing beliefs.

This has gone on far too long. In today’s Martin Center article, Stanley Kurtz writes about model legislation he worked on with the Goldwater Institute that would finally make free speech central to all the state institutions of higher education in states that adopt it.

The Campus Free Speech Act would require the governing bodies of public colleges and universities to shore up the eroding foundations of free speech and report to the public on their results.

Kurtz explains why the restoration of free speech is so important, writing, “If true freedom of speech is ‘freedom for the thought that we hate,’ then freedom is actually a form of self-mastery. Far from being license, true freedom is an act of self-control, a refusal to physically extinguish even the speech we abhor.

SOURCE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of the institutions of higher learning are very sick with Liberal nonsense and with the pressure of "publish or perish".

The purpose of faculty should be to help students to learn. It should not be the purpose of faculty to raise the prestige of themselves or the institution.

Bird of Paradise said...

These damn liberal run collages and universities that restict free speech becuase some shining little snowflake might be offended need to be sued and their administreightors and liberal professors be made to eat crow time for them to be reminded the U.S. Constitution still the law of the land and not their tyrantival dicates

Anonymous said...

It is one thing to talk about free speech but totally another to reign in the leftist violence to allow free speech to occur. Unless any student can air his personal view in class then free speech is still dead on campus. Unless the university staff embrace free speech nothing will change no matter what is promised or legislated. Unless the student union is curtailed nothing will happen. Basically regardless of what anyone would like NOTHING WILL HAPPEN. Until the powers that be are ready to address the leftist ideology in universities nothing will change.

Anonymous said...

Unless the violence and hate by the left is addressed nothing will change. Progressive hatred of free speech stems from the highest level down to the lowset level levels of academia directly. Especially tertiary institutions are the most culpable in enabling student violence through their student unions. It must change before more damage is done to the values of free speech. It is time to hold every student accountable for their actions as it also time to hold all university employees accountable for their incitement to violence. The golden days of anarchy need to end now before it is too late to change the final outcome leading to the downfall of the US.

Spurwing Plover the fighting shorebird said...

Any collage or unisersity that restrict free speech needs to get used under the 1st Amendment FREEDOM of SPEECH and their administrators and professors made to eat crow