The myth of free speech on university campuses

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
> Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 10:03:43 -0500
> From: Gary Johnston <gary () one net>
>
>
> http://www.townhall.com/columnists/johnleo/jl20031103.shtml
>
>
>
> The Sheldon -- it's baaack
>
>
> John Leo
>
> November 3, 2003
>
> Many readers with far too much time on their hands have written in and
> asked: Whatever happened to this column’s annual Sheldon award? Well, it’s
> back. As all Sheldon fans know, the prize goes to the university president
> who does the most to look the other way when free speech is under assault on
> campus. The Sheldon is a statuette that looks something like the Oscar,
> except that the Oscar shows a man with no face looking straight ahead,
> whereas the Sheldon shows a man with no spine looking the other way. It is
> named for Sheldon Hackney, former president of the University of
> Pennsylvania and a modern legend in looking the other way. After minority
> students in 1993 stole the entire press run of a campus newspaper, Hackney
> refused to discipline the thieves. But the guard who pursued them was
> reprimanded, a nice touch.
>
> Emulating Hackney is like setting out to be the new Babe Ruth, but many try.
> A strong contender this year is William Cibes Jr., chancellor of the
> Connecticut State University system. One professor, fed up with one-sided
> seminars and guest lectures at CSU, asked the university to endorse airing a
> full range of views in these programs. Cibes said no, on the grounds that
> such a statement could justly be seen as “invading academic freedom.” He is
> believed to be the first college administrator to oppose intellectual
> diversity as a threat to academic freedom.
>
> More recently, when the newspaper at Hampton University in Virginia was
> about to run an article on health violations at the cafeteria, acting
> university president JoAnn Haysbert asked for space on Page 1 to give her
> side. The editors put her article on Page 3, so she seized all copies of the
> issue, which was then reprinted with her piece on Page 1. Haysbert may be a
> bonehead, but she is ineligible for the Sheldon, which requires looking the
> other way, not making off with a whole press run yourself.
>
> A furor erupted at the University of Nevada -- Las Vegas when the student
> newspaper ran an abrasive Columbus Day article celebrating Columbus and
> rejecting both Indian cultures and the multicultural notion that all
> cultures are somehow equal. Nearly all copies of the paper were stolen, and
> the author of the article, Alexander Marriott, was fired from the staff of
> the paper on a charge of plagiarism, since discredited. No word yet from
> UNLV president Carol Harter, who is believed to be busy looking the other
> way.
>
> Also emerging from the pack of Sheldon contenders is Warren Baker, president
> of California Polytechnic State University -- San Luis Obispo. A number of
> black students were offended when a white student at the Multicultural
> Center attempted to post a flier advertising a speech by black writer Mason
> Weaver, author of It’s OK to Leave the Plantation, an argument that
> dependence on government harms black Americans. The student, Steven Hinkle,
> offered to discuss the flier but was met by threats to call police. The Cal
> Poly judicial affairs office found Hinkle guilty of “disruption of a campus
> event,” although five of the seven complainants said the meeting had not yet
> started and all seven said Hinkle entered quietly and conducted himself
> civilly when challenged. So the “disruption” seemed to be in the minds of
> the complainants: They were offended by the content of the flier. The
> Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) entered the case,
> sending two letters to President Baker explaining his legal and moral
> obligation to the First Amendment and academic freedom. No dice. He refused
> to act.
>
> Gerald Turner, president of Southern Methodist University, has made one of
> the strongest bids for the Sheldon by allowing subordinates to shut down a
> student bake sale that mocked the unfairness of race and gender preferences:
> Identical cookies were offered at different prices for whites, minorities,
> and women. The director of the student center said the issue wasn’t free
> speech but “a hostile environment being created that was potentially
> volatile.”
>
> Campus satire about affirmative action is greeted in much the same way that
> jokes about Allah are welcomed by the Taliban. Hostile-environment charges
> are a traditional campus way of saying “I am offended, so silence those who
> disagree with me.” And if violence is threatened, says University of
> California -- Los Angeles law Prof. Eugene Volokh, a university should
> respond “by protecting the speakers against the would-be thugs, rather than
> by shutting up the speakers and letting the thugs win.” President Turner,
> however, declined to intervene, letting the censors win.
>
> The presidents of SMU and Cal Poly are clearly way ahead of their
> Sheldon-seeking rivals. Since there is little difference between them, the
> Sheldon judges are awarding two trophies this year. Congratulations to
> Gerald Turner and Warren Baker, Sheldon laureates of 2003.
>
> ©2003 Universal Press Syndicate

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