Arizona State University
The largest public college in the country by enrollment, Arizona State University clinched its position on this list earlier this year when it eliminated its last questionable policy on expression. ASU also earns a top spot because it is unusual for us to hear so few claims of free speech violations from a school the size of a small city.
Dartmouth College
Probably one of our more controversial choices, Ivy League school Dartmouth has been a "green light" school since 2005, when the college abolished its speech code by withdrawing two open letters to students that suggested students could be punished for hurting the "feelings" of others. If your free speech ends any time a student can claim hurt feelings, no speech is safe, so we welcomed the withdrawal of this implied policy. While Dartmouth has been involved with serious controversies about governance since then, there have been no serious free speech cases that we know of at Dartmouth in many years.
The College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary is a shining example of how dedicated students and principled administrators can work together to uphold student rights without compromising other university values. Between 2007 and 2009, student and former FIRE intern Braum Katz worked with FIRE and W&M to make crucial revisions to its Bias Incident Reporting System policy, its Internet posting policy, and its discrimination policy to clearly separate protected student speech from harassment and other unprotected behavior. Throughout the process, the administration's cooperation set W&M apart from its peers as a university attuned to student input regarding fundamental rights.
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania has come a long way since the "Water Buffalo Affair" drew national attention to abuses of student rights on campus in 1993 (the incident, chronicled in The Shadow University, was one of the cases that inspired the founding of FIRE). The speech code used against the student in that case was abolished in 1995, and Penn was one of the first schools to earn a "green light" rating. Penn has demonstrated its commitment to free speech more recently by, for example, declining to punish a student who wore a suicide bomber costume to a Halloween party in 2006, despite calls for censorship.
Carnegie Mellon University
Even though Carnegie Mellon University is a private university not bound by the First Amendment, it promises students that it "values the freedoms of speech, thought, expression and assembly--in themselves and as part of our core educational and intellectual mission. If individuals are to cherish freedom, they must experience it. The very concept of freedom assumes that people usually choose wisely from a range of available ideas and that the range and implications of ideas cannot be fully understood unless we hold vital our rights to know, to express, and to choose. The university must be a place where all ideas may be expressed freely and where no alternative is withheld from consideration." A lot of private universities make noble promises like this but fail to follow through. CMU does make good on its promise
by maintaining healthy speech policies (since 2007) and, so far as we know, hasn't violated this promise in practice for several years.
by maintaining healthy speech policies (since 2007) and, so far as we know, hasn't violated this promise in practice for several years.
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville has proven that it is serious about maintaining its "green light" status. The administration has been especially responsive to all of FIRE's free speech concerns and has acted quickly to revise any policy ambiguities or mistakes that would threaten or chill student speech.
University of Virginia
Within three months of taking office, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan's administration worked with FIRE to eliminate all four of UVa's speech codes last year. Dean of Students Allen Groves led the initiative, reforming UVa's "Just Report It!" "bias reporting" system to promise students that protected speech will not be subject to official discipline or investigation, even if it is reported. The Women's Center removed unconstitutional examples of harassment from its website, such as mere "innuendo" and unwanted flirting. And the computer use policy no longer prohibits messages that "vilify" others or "inappropriate" mailing list messages. UVa also has been standing up against a sweeping document request relating to the Virginia Attorney General's fraud investigation of former professor Michael Mann, arguing that it threatens academic freedom.
Syracuse University--Syracuse, New York
Chilly Syracuse, New York, is home to the most dramatic ongoing attempt to stifle student speech so far in 2011. The Syracuse University College of Law has been considering expelling a law student for "harassment" because he liked The Onion enough to allegedly participate in a satirical fake-news blogabout law school life. But SU won't reveal who his accusers are or say what was harassing about any of it. "Independent prosecutor" and law professor Gregory Germain pooh-poohs SU's free speech commitment, complaining about "people who have a sense of entitlement to free speech." Germain even wants a gag order on the student. For Syracuse to be taken seriously as a place dedicated to intellectual inquiry it needs to stop this inquisition against a humor website.
Furthermore, in October, the "public safety" director reportedly said the campus police would require students to remove "offensive" Halloween costumes and would report them for discipline because other students could become violently offended. Syracuse has other speech codes like a ban on "offensive" e-mails, and a "bias" reporting system where students can inform on one another for an "inappropriate verbal comment."
Furthermore, in October, the "public safety" director reportedly said the campus police would require students to remove "offensive" Halloween costumes and would report them for discipline because other students could become violently offended. Syracuse has other speech codes like a ban on "offensive" e-mails, and a "bias" reporting system where students can inform on one another for an "inappropriate verbal comment."
DePaul University--Chicago, IL
Year after year, DePaul University has walked all over the expressive rights of its students and faculty, with little accountability or sense of obligation to its free speech promises. Most recently, DePaul denied recognition to the student group Students for Cannabis Policy Reform--first saying that the university wasn't ready to "manage" the group's message, then saying that allowing the group on campus might promote poor decision-making in matters of student health. In recent years DePaul has also punished a groupfor holding an "affirmative action bake sale" protest, suspended a professorwithout due process for engaging in a debate on Middle East issues with a group of students, and banned a student group from posting flyers protesting a visit by former professor Ward Churchill. While DePaul is a private religious college, it publicly proclaims that it defends and venerates free speech, so it should be held to those promises.
SUNY Binghamton--Binghamton, New York
Binghamton University (formerly SUNY Binghamton) tried to suspend or expel Social Work graduate student Andre Massena merely for putting up posterscriticizing the department, which had hired a faculty member Andre thought was responsible for injustice towards the poor as director of the Binghamton Housing Authority. The department ordered Andre to leave the program for a year with no guarantee of return, required him to apologize, and demanded that he publicly disavow his own views. When he appealed, department chair Laura Bronstein added entirely new allegations. With FIRE's support and under public pressure, Bronstein dropped the charges and Massena graduated. Later, the Department of Social Work expelled another graduate student apparently because of his classroom expression. Bronstein had required him to sign away his free speech rights -- his "advancement plan" stated that he could never make fellow students or instructors feel "uncomfortable." Binghamton's appeals panel upheld the expulsion without explaining why.
UMass Amherst--Amherst, Massachusetts
University of Massachusetts Amherst has a policy on rallies that totally disregards its First Amendment obligations to respect the rights of free speech and assembly. According to the policy, rallies deemed "controversial" (the policy does not say who makes that determination, or how) must be scheduled at least 5 days in advance and can only take place between the hours of noon and 1 pm on the Student Union steps. Perhaps worst of all, the policy requires the student organization sponsoring the controversial rally to be its own security--it must designate at least six of its own members to act as security. This is bad news indeed for student groups wishing to express views that, as the Supreme Court has put it, are "unpopular with bottle throwers." Burdening a student group for expressing controversial opinions--either financially (as UMass tried to do to a campus group in 2009) or by requiring the group to assume physical risk--is blatantly unconstitutional. What's more, UMass has a long history of censorship, from revoking a student group's permit to hold a pro-war demonstration after 9/11 to standing by while a student newspaper was stolen by students and then censored by the student government for mocking a student government official.
Yale University--New Haven, Connecticut
Yale, despite its lofty promises of free speech, its exalted academic standing, and its name-brand recognition, has been a repeat offender against freedom of expression in recent years. Most egregiously, the university intervened tocensor images of Mohammed in author Jytte Klausen's book, The Cartoons That Shook the World--a scholarly book about the cartoons from Yale University Press. Relying on a group of anonymous consultants, press director John Donatich chose censorship out of fear of "blood on my hands" if the images were included. Widespread criticism did not prevail. In a sillier case--but one that still teaches all the wrong lessons of censorship--a Yale dean interfered with the decision of the Freshman Class Council to distribute a shirt for the Harvard-Yale football game that quoted novelist F. Scott Fizgerald's line, "I think of all Harvard men as sissies." Arguing that the word "sissy" could be seen as a derogatory slur against homosexuals, the dean later claimed that she had financial and editorial control over the Freshman Class Council.
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