Author Archives: E Wayne Ross

VOA: It’s Not Just Yelling ‘Fire’ in a Theater That Can Get You in Trouble

One day in 1992, a University of Pennsylvania student had trouble studying in his Philadelphia dormitory because other students were talking loudly outside. He threw open the window and shouted, “Shut up, you stupid water buffalo!”

The Chronicle News Blog: Free-Speech Group Says Most Colleges Violate the First Amendment

Nearly three-quarters of colleges and universities maintain unconstitutional speech codes, according to a report released today by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The group, known as FIRE, gave 270 of 364 institutions a “red light” for having “at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.” In last year’s report, FIRE gave 259 of 346 colleges and universities that designation: 74.9 percent, compared with 74.2 percent this year.

Calgary Herald: Students are becoming frightening speech stiflers

What a bunch of wimps a large number of university students are these days. They’re about as far removed from the heady era of Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement in the ’60s and ’70s as Jerry Rubin was from his firebrand days as a socialist Yippie, after he knotted his necktie, grabbed a briefcase and headed for Wall Street. The Free Speech Movement was launched when students –many of whom had gone south to sign up black voters during the Freedom Summer of 1964–set up booths on the Berkeley campus to raise money for various civil rights projects. The university objected because its rules forbade political fundraising unless it was done by the Republican and Democratic student clubs.

Inside Higher Ed: Speech Restrictions Draw Fire

A proposed policy at Northeastern Illinois University would require protesters to submit copies of fliers and signs to administrators two weeks before bringing them on the campus, sparking criticism from free speech advocates.