University of Colorado at Boulder: Suppression of Affirmative Action Bake Sale
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, the College Republicans and the Equal Opportunity Alliance were informed by administrators that they would not be permitted to hold an affirmative action bake sale because, CU claimed, the students would be engaging in discrimination. FIRE Legal Network Attorney Robert Corry quickly stepped in, informing CU that he would be filing for an injunction on Tuesday at noon to force the university not to abridge the students' First Amendment rights. The planned bake sale was a political protest, not an exercise in discrimination. Under threat of court action, CU quickly agreed to settle the issue, agreeing to allow the bake sale as long as they charged only "suggested prices" and use race only as a "plus factor" in determining the price. The students consented and held the event, although at the sale itself other students who opposed the protest attempted to silence it, vandalizing the booth and tearing down signs.
"The AHA's Double Standard on Academic Freedom," David Beito, Ralph Luker, and Robert “K. C.” Johnson, Perspectives (American Historical Association), March 1, 2006: While academic freedom eventually triumphed in most of these cases, it was only because outside organizations, especially the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), spread adverse publicity or threatened lawsuits. In the meantime, the college administrators in question had displayed to the world an appalling disdain for free speech, while all too many faculty, by not speaking out, showed either failure of nerve or outright complicity in injustice.
"The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, and the Pasadena Star-News on FIRE," March 3, 2004: Universities still do not comprehend that their contempt for free speech places them far, far outside of the mainstream of American public opinion. In particular, they seem continually surprised that the media, who live or die by the Bill of Rights, understand freedom of expression full well. The March 1 lead editorial of The Philadelphia Inquirer, an editorial in today's USA Today, and yet another editorial in the Pasadena Star-News offer a compelling textbook education, if academic administrators are willing to listen, in the relationship of higher education and freedom of speech.
"The intimidating atmosphere for free speech on campus," Greg Lukianoff, Colorado Daily, February 19, 2004: The University of Colorado at Boulder decided to teach us all a lesson about free speech last week, but it may not be the lesson it intended.
