Â鶹´«Ã½IOS

Â鶹´«Ã½IOS's Student Spotlight feature recognizes students who are doing outstanding work to promote individual rights on their campuses. This month, Â鶹´«Ã½IOS recognizes the work of students at Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC), who authored a stirring calling on the college to honor its moral and legal duties as a public institution under the First Amendment. 

As Azhar reported on The Torch earlier this month, Michael Christian, a student senator at GGC, contacted Â鶹´«Ã½IOS last June to ask about speech codes at his school. Â鶹´«Ã½IOS's review found several problematic policies on the books at GGC. Armed with Â鶹´«Ã½IOS's analysis, Michael and other student leaders on campus, including Shannon Conner, Travis Jones, Quinton Malone, Tiffany McCarty, and Tyler Vining, authored the "Free Speech on Campus" resolution to call for policy reform. On February 4, this resolution passed with the overwhelming support of the Student Government's Senate and Executive Council. The resolution's detailed prescriptions for improving GGC's speech codes are a great first step towards reform at GGC, and we hope administrators have taken note!

I recently asked Michael Christian, Travis Jones, Tiffany McCarty, and Seijin Tranberg to talk about their experience of writing and passing this resolution and to tell me what advice their coalition has for other students who want to support speech rights on campus.

Congratulations to Michael, Travis, Tiffany, Seijin, and all the students who helped pass this resolution at Georgia Gwinnett! Check back on The Torch next month to hear about more students who are successfully challenging the culture of campus censorship. To nominate a student or student group for Â鶹´«Ã½IOS's Student Spotlight, email jaclyn@thefire.org.