Supporting Students Free Expression

Emma Camp
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: According to a new survey, a majority of college students believe that professors who say something "offensive" should be reported to the university.

The survey, from researchers at North Dakota State University, found that 74 percent of students overall supported reporting professors for offensive statements. While a majority of students from all political persuasions agreed with reporting professors, a higher percentage of liberal students were in favor; 81 percent of liberal students supported reporting professors, while only 53 percent of conservative students supported it.

Ryan Stowers
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: Over the past several years, state lawmakers have debated a growing number of policies related to academic freedom and free expression on university campuses.

In the urgency to address such severe challenges, it is tempting to seek out the most expedient solution. And few solutions could be more expedient than the top-down coercive power of legislation. That’s not how truth-seeking works.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

Excerpt: Today, a 17-year-old rising senior represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued his Tennessee public high school after the principal suspended him for posting memes lampooning the principal for being overly serious.

“The First Amendment bars public school employees from acting as a 24/7 board of censors,” said FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. “As long as a student’s posts do not substantially disrupt school, what teens post on social media on their own time is between them and their parents, not the government.”

Jennifer Ruth
Academe Blog

Excerpt: [Professor Kathleen] McElroy is a veteran journalist, with two decades of experience at the New York Times covering obituaries, sports, and other topics before she left to get a PhD and then join UT–Austin’s journalism program, soon serving a term as its director. So when Texas A&M announced that they were recruiting McElroy to relaunch their long-dormant journalism program, they did so with understandable fanfare.

But this is Texas and McElroy is a Black woman who believes broadly in the value of diversity. These factors do not undermine her fitness to run a journalism program, of course, and some might even believe they enhance her fitness, but these factors were, nonetheless, apparently enough to tank the appointment.

Lori Rozsa
Washington Post

Excerpt: The Florida State Board of Education approved new rules Wednesday for how Black history will be taught in public schools that critics are decrying as a “step backward.”

The updated standards say students should learn that enslaved people “developed skills” that “could be applied for their personal benefit,” and that in teaching about mob violence against Black residents instructors should note “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

Susan King
Chronicle of Higher Education

Excerpt: It’s happened again. Another accomplished Black woman recruited for a leadership role at a public university was offered tenure and then deceived, dissed, and dismissed.

Kathleen McElroy is reportedly returning to her tenured position at the University of Texas at Austin because Texas A&M University at College Station, her alma mater, backtracked on her appointment to lead its journalism program. Just a month ago, Texas A&M celebrated McElroy at a public signing ceremony. Then the university changed its offer.