Campus Events & Enforcement

Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley's Blog

Excerpt: Dan Kalb, an Oakland City Council member, is an ardent environmentalist and liberal politician. He was considered ideal to speak at the University of California, Berkeley, on the environment . . . until students found out that Kalb is also a supporter of Israel.  Kalb was reportedly disinvited this month by Natural Resources Professor Kurt Spreyer after students objected and threatened a protest.

Jessie Appleby
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents announced in late December that it voted unanimously to terminate long-time chancellor of the UW-La Crosse campus, Joe Gow, after discovering his involvement in the adult film industry.

In short, while the First Amendment may indeed protect Gow’s continued employment as a faculty member with UW, the university will likely cite grounds for terminating his position as chancellor around the terms of his appointment and the high-ranking and public-facing nature of the position.

Kathryn Palmer
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Some faculty members at Indiana University at Bloomington fear academic freedom on their campus is under attack by a local congressman reacting to claims of antisemitism among some members of the student government association.

The lawmaker, U.S. Representative Jim Banks, a conservative Republican and evangelical Christian who is running for U.S. Senate in 2024, has asked the university’s president to address allegations of antisemitism on campus related to the Israel-Hamas war or potentially risk losing federal funding

Emma Camp
Reason Magazine
 
Excerpt: According to a new survey, only one-third of college students say it's never acceptable to shout down a controversial campus speaker. And one-quarter think using violence can be acceptable in at least some circumstances to stop someone from speaking on campus.

The highest-ranked schools consistently had "green" speech code ratings—a measure FIRE uses to indicate that a school's official policies do not trample student and faculty First Amendment rights—and administrations that consistently defended controversial speech. However, many of these same schools seem to have student bodies that aren't quite so tolerant.

Graham Piro
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: The University of California San Diego’s decision to charge a large number of students who allegedly disrupted a campus event in May – charges that have swept up students who say they weren’t even present at the event – raises significant concerns about the university’s fealty to its constitutional obligations.

By Amanda Nordstrom
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: Graduation time used to be known as “disinvitation season” around FIRE’s offices, as we prepared for the yearly increase in demands by faculty members and students to revoke the invitations of guest speakers — often commencement and keynote speakers — because of something the speaker did, said, or believes.