RhetoricAndComposition > SectionSixtySeven > YourBlogs > FreeSpeech > FreeOldThings

College is a place of academic and ideological growth. Through diverse and open exchange of ideas, students are to make informed decisions, some of the first the first we will make as adults and contributing members to society. If any progress is to be made in creating outspoken, thoughtful college graduates, the flow of ideas must not be interrupted through bias or restriction of any kind of speech in public universities.

Public universities, being funded at least partially by the state, must adhere to the rules thereof. In this case, I intend to point out and attempt to correct the stifling of the first amendment rights granted by the constitution of the United States. If public universities have bias or limit free speech, they are disobeying these rules.

Problems with censorship are rampant on public campuses. For example, some universities launch speech code programs in their campuses. These are things that allow the university to punish individuals for what they say and the ideas that they convey. This staunch political correctness campaign is a problem and must be stopped. Bias is also a problem. Some universities use money straight from the student activities portion of student tuition to fund ideological groups, money out of students’ pockets to fund extremist views.

Some of these problems are more difficult to recognize as such, which doesn’t make them any less important to prevent. For example, within my own dorm, I was asked to sign a form claiming that my room, my living space for the next few months, would be a “Prejudice Free Zone.” While I don’t condone racism and bigotry, I disagree with this policy. I felt forced to give up some fundamental rights. If, hypothetically, I ‘’were’’ racist, I would have to change my ideals and core beliefs to conform to the policies of the university, or at the very least, never express those opinions out loud. How far of a leap is it to believe that the university could therefore attempt to change any of my other opinions and beliefs? If I were a conservative or liberal, would my beliefs be in jeopardy? It is not so hard to believe in my opinion.

Therefore, I propose my final argument to be a formal letter to the administration of a public university such as Penn State asking to remove biased policies and programs that limit free speech. There are many of these programs, including but not limited to speech codes, funding of biased political groups, and squelching of ideas by fellow students. My project will look at how separation of church and state is handled by the university, how hate speech is or should be tolerated, and how the professors themselves may be teaching their own personal agendas to their students.

These policies baby the student body of the nation. If an idea is a repulsive as it would have to be to warrant a speech code, a rational student would reject it. If students are reasonable people, the fact that they are exposed to opinions from all angles will not be a problem. It would only contribute to the collective national intelligence. The public university system would be enriched.

This project will address the need using several of the kinds of arguments learned in class. I will define what media to which free speech extends. This is important, as dialogue of unfamiliar ideas between students must be able to reach a larger audience such as a newspaper readership. I’ll define hate speech, which can be an important counter-argument against unlimited free speech. Bias should be defined, as universities will never likely be explicitly biased. This will help show where the problem is and where to more effectively combat it. I will evaluate the current setup of public universities and see if they really allow free exchange of ideas. I will also demonstrate through causal arguments that bias in the educational system stifles academic growth. This will probably be one of the more important arguments in the project.

As students this argument is extremely important. I don’t want my speech limited by some code that was drafted by someone I have never met. I want to be able to hear what other people have to say, no matter how hateful or ridiculous it is. I want to go to a university with an open and free exchange of ideas between students and faculty, and everyone in between. If all goes well, it would mean a brighter and better rounded generation than has been seen ever before from college.

Sources:

Martin Golding, Free Speech on Campus. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, April, 2000

The Center for Campus Speech. <http://www.campusspeech.org/>

Fire - Speech Codes Issues. <http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/5675.html>

Speech Codes Theorey <http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~kc297098/SC.htm>