10 worst colleges for free speech, and Harvard makes list (When this used to be America)
'Our hope is that one day creating this list will be difficult'
By WND Staff Published January 29, 2020 at 8:25pm
Harvard University (Pixabay)
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's 2020 list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech includes one that fired a professor over an innocuous joke on social media and one that suspended a librarian for curating a historical display highlighting the university's own photos of its racist past.
FIRE's "worst-of-the-worst" list features both public and private colleges. The organization notes public colleges and universities are bound by the First Amendment, while private institutions are not. But they explicitly promise to respect student and faculty speech rights.
Here are the worst 10, presented in no particular order:
Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Babson fired a professor over a private, satirical post on Facebook. Asheen Phansey was responding to President Trump's threat to bomb 52 Iranian sites, including cultural sites.
Phansey wrote: "In retaliation, Ayatollah Khomeni should tweet a list of 52 sites of beloved American cultural heritage that he would bomb. Um ... Mall of America? ... Kardashian residence?"
College administrators suspended Phansey pending an "investigation," saying the college "condemns any type of threatening words and/or actions condoning violence" and was "cooperating with local, state and federal authorities." Less than a day later, Babson concluded its "thorough investigation" and fired him.
In a letter to Babson on Jan. 9, FIRE argued Phansey’s post was clearly political hyperbole about an issue of public concern and did not constitute a "true threat” or "incitement."
Jones College, Ellisville, Mississippi:
Last spring, administrators and campus police twice stopped student Mike Brown from exercising his free speech rights when he tried to recruit fellow students for a campus chapter of the conservative group Young Americans for Liberty.
Brown was told he needed the college's explicit permission to speak on campus.
In September, FIRE helped Brown file a First Amendment lawsuit that was joined by the Justice Department arguing that Jones College's policies deny students their free speech rights. The policies require administrative approval, at least three days in advance, for any "meetings or gatherings" on campus.
A Justice Department statement said: "Such extreme preconditions to speech might not be out of place in Oceania, the fictional dystopian superstate in George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four.' The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, however, ensures that preconditions like these have no place in the United States of America."
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard administrators removed a faculty dean for joining a criminal defense team, blacklisting its own students and more.
Professors Ronald Sullivan and Stephanie Robinson were removed as faculty deans of a residential house after students expressed outrage that Sullivan briefly joined Harvey Weinstein's criminal defense team, making students feel "unsafe."
The college also brought back a blacklist for students who join single-gender clubs, even off campus.
A few months ago, Harvard implemented a new speaker policy requiring that events deemed to involve "high profile, controversial speakers, or VIP guests" have a neutral moderator in place, supposedly to handle disruptions.
University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania:
Students seeking to start a registered chapter of the conservative group Turning Point USA on campus almost immediately faced obstacles.
Before the students even presented their proposal, the student government president said on social media "yikes, nope, denied" because of the group's viewpoint. The application ultimately was rejected.
The university was dismissive of FIRE's complaint to the institution's president of obvious viewpoint discrimination.
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont:
Hours before controversial Polish scholar and politician Ryszard Legutko was set to speak on campus last April, administrators canceled the event, citing unsubstantiated "safety risks."
It wasn't the first time. In March 2017, a campus appearance by scholar Charles Murray led to violent protests, an injured professor and a canceled lecture. More recently, a student was notified he was being investigated for violating the college’s "Demonstrations and Protests Policy" and "Respectful Behavior Policy" after he engaged in heated questioning of CIA recruiters at an on-campus event. FIRE said that, to the college's credit, it quickly backed down and has since updated its demonstrations policy.
Long Island University Post, Brookville, New York:
Last spring, just three days before graduation, senior Jake Gutowitz was investigated by administrators for allegedly distributing "forbidden flyers"on campus some five months earlier.
Labeled "Common Sense" à la Thomas Paine, they contained parodies and poems criticizing LIU Post and its administrators, particularly President Kimberly Cline.
An administrator claimed an "anonymous student" reported seeing Gutowitz post the flyers on campus and reported him to campus safety officers. At an investigatory meeting, Gutowitz denied any involvement but was told he could expect a letter resolving the investigation by the end of the semester. He left the university and never received the letter, but FIRE said the probe of protected speech and failure to resolve the matter "has a lasting chilling effect on student expression."
University of Connecticut, Mansfield, Connecticut:
Two students engaging in the common dare in which one says a taboo word and the other repeats it louder were recorded by a student. When he listened closely to the recording, he realized the students had used the word "nigger."
After the video went viral, campus police dug through surveillance video, analyzed Wi-Fi data and pulled up logs of the cards used to access campus buildings to identify the offending speakers. The two were charged with a criminal offense under a century-old statute outlawing race-based "ridicule" in commercial advertisements.
A First Amendment lawsuit brought by the students is pending.
Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York:
Syracuse began the year by denying recognition to Young Americans for Freedom, finding the group's conservative ideology "inflammatory." The university demanded that the group abolish its requirement that prospective members believe in the group's conservative values.
Syracuse closed the year by suspending all fraternity activities for the rest of the semester in response to an alleged racial incident, even though the university admitted that most, if not all, of the student groups had nothing to do with it. The allegation was the use of a racial slur by a non-fraternity member.
Last year, Syracuse suspended students of its Theta Tau engineering fraternity chapter for a private, satirical skit roasting their fellow members.
Doane University, Crete, Nebraska:
In April, the university investigated and suspended faculty librarian Melissa Gomis for curating a historical photo display called "Parties of the Past," consisting of photos selected from the university’s own archival photo collection. The display was intended to inspire discussion about the ongoing national debate surrounding offensive Halloween and party costumes, as well as a national effort to confront the history of blackface in universities' yearbooks.
After a student complained, Doane placed Gomis on leave and investigated her under a charge of "discriminatory harassment."
FIRE intervened, and Gomis has since been reinstated. But FIRE said Doane failed to meaningfully respond to the broader free-speech issues raised in the case.
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon:
After campus police canceled a socialist group’s meeting when an uninvited Patriot Prayer leader said he would show up, officers stood by while a single protester, armed with a cowbell, shut down a College Republicans meeting.
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