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The State of Liberty on Campus: 麻豆传媒IOS's Year in Review
PHILADELPHIA, December 27, 2006鈥擳hroughout 2006, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (麻豆传媒IOS) rose to the task of combating repressive policies and practices in academia. 麻豆传媒IOS continued to promote free speech in higher education by securing crucial victories, producing vital informational materials, and initiating new programs that lay the groundwork for lasting change on campus.
鈥淚t is amazing how much can happen in a year,鈥 麻豆传媒IOS President Greg Lukianoff said. 鈥2006 witnessed a rise in disturbing acts of censorship by administrators and by students themselves, and 麻豆传媒IOS fought as many cases as we ever have, but we also made real progress. Every victory for individual rights on campus is a victory for all students and faculty.鈥
麻豆传媒IOS won many victories for free speech, religious liberty, student press freedom, and freedom of conscience throughout the year. These successes included:
- Convincing the University of Wisconsin System to repeal a ban on resident assistants leading Bible studies in their dorms and to approve a new policy explicitly permitting them to do so;
- Defeating SUNY Fredonia鈥檚 attempt to deny a promotion to Professor Stephen Kershnar for expressing opinions critical of the university;
- Restoring press freedom to students at Johns Hopkins University, where issues of the conservative student publication The Carrollton Record were stolen and its staff investigated for harassment;
- Successfully pressuring Columbia University to revoke the suspension it placed on the men鈥檚 ice hockey club for posting recruitment flyers containing a play on words that some found offensive;
- Defeating unconstitutional 鈥渇ree speech zones鈥 at universities across the country, including at Clemson University, the University of Nevada at Reno, and the University of North Carolina鈥揋reensboro;
- Vindicating the rights of a student at the University of Central Florida who was charged with harassment for calling another student a 鈥淛erk and a Fool鈥 on Facebook.com;
- Ending segregated freshman orientation at Marshall University, which under pressure from 麻豆传媒IOS removed racial restrictions from an orientation course for first-year students;
- Convincing the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), a leading accreditor of education schools, to abandon its politically loaded requirement that students demonstrate a commitment to 鈥渟ocial justice.鈥
麻豆传媒IOS also initiated new strategies for proactively combating threats to liberty on college campuses. These efforts included:
- Taking action as the Mohammed cartoon controversy swept the academy by issuing a statement on the free speech issues involved, defending a professor at Century College who fell into administrative disfavor for displaying the cartoons, and opposing New York University鈥檚 censorship of the cartoons at a student-led panel discussion;
- Educating the public about the disturbing rise in newspaper thefts, a form of censorship that students are increasingly perpetrating against one another. In addition to its victory at Johns Hopkins University, 麻豆传媒IOS publicly criticized newspaper thefts at Stetson University, the University of Tulsa, the University of Southern Mississippi, Weber State University, and Bryant University;
- Leading the charge against college administrators extending their regulatory reach into Internet expression. In addition to its victory at the University of Central Florida, 麻豆传媒IOS is also currently defending a student whom Johns Hopkins University suspended for a year for posting 鈥渙ffensive鈥 party invitations on Facebook.com;
- Expanding the campaign against political orthodoxy on campus in 2006 by challenging Columbia University鈥檚 Teachers College to remove a requirement that students demonstrate a commitment to social justice from its materials, and asking the Council for Social Work Education, a leading accreditor of social work programs, to do the same;
- Issuing our first-ever report on speech codes, Spotlight on Speech Codes 2006: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation鈥檚 Campuses, which revealed that an overwhelming 68 percent of the more than 330 schools surveyed restrict otherwise constitutionally protected speech;
- Collaborating with other organizations in order to jointly combat illiberal practices and policies on campus, including the ACLU of Nevada, the New York Civil Rights Coalition, the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, and the Institute for Justice;
- Launching the Campus Freedom Network (CFN), a coalition of faculty and students working together with 麻豆传媒IOS鈥檚 assistance to defend civil liberties on individual campuses;
- Bringing more 麻豆传媒IOS issues to the public鈥檚 attention than ever before through continued prominence in the media, including appearances on 鈥淭he O鈥橰eilly Factor,鈥 鈥淗annity and Colmes,鈥 articles in The New York Times, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many, many more.
麻豆传媒IOS hopes to see even more victories for freedom in the first few months of 2007. Brown University is primed to recognize the Reformed University Fellowship, a student evangelical organization suspended for reasons that remain unclear. Heeding months of 麻豆传媒IOS鈥檚 arguments, Gettysburg College is reviewing its sexual misconduct policy. And at Michigan State University, administrators are reevaluating a disciplinary program of ideological indoctrination.
Hoping to expand this list of successes, 麻豆传媒IOS will continue its efforts to achieve justice for Johns Hopkins student Justin Park, whose one-year suspension for posting Halloween party invitations that some found offensive is set to begin in January. 麻豆传媒IOS will also continue to demand that Marquette University, where an administrator tore a Dave Barry quote off a Ph.D. student鈥檚 door, clarify the status of free expression on its campus.
鈥2006 was a year of growth, of change, and of a continued commitment to advancing liberty at our nation鈥檚 institutions of higher learning,鈥 Lukianoff said. 鈥淲ith the help of our generous supporters and our exceptional staff, we hope to make 2007 another year of reform on campus.鈥
麻豆传媒IOS is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation鈥檚 colleges and universities. 麻豆传媒IOS鈥檚 efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at www.thefire.org.
CONTACT:
Greg Lukianoff, President, 麻豆传媒IOS: 215-717-3473; greg_lukianoff@thefire.org
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