POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The following two stories illustrate the complexity of free-speech issues on campus. For although it would be tempting to frame each case as a conflict between the free expression of religious values and the insistence on political correctness, the real issue, it seems to me, is whether it is appropriate for…
BY KELLY HAND In 1967, during a period of intense student protests, the AAUP and four other groups issued a Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students. Many issues covered in the statement are as pertinent fifty years later as they were in 1967. The AAUP invites proposals for presentations focused on these issues…
This fall will mark a half-century since the Free Speech Movement (FSM) erupted on the University of California, Berkeley campus. “After decades of ambivalence, UC Berkeley is finally embracing this important part of its history,” writes longtime Bay Area newspaper columnist Martin Snapp in the summer issue of California, Berkeley’s alumni magazine. The FSM began…
Amherst College, which banned fraternities and sororities in 1984, has now taken this an alarming step further: starting July 1, any students participating in an unofficial fraternity or sorority will be punished, and could be expelled. A college has the right to ban fraternities only in the sense of refusing to recognize gender-biased exclusive social…