Le Moyne College: Dismissal of Student for Dissenting Views

Case Materials

• "Court Rebukes Le Moyne College for Censorship," FIRE Press Release, January 19, 2006: In an important victory for freedom and fundamental fairness, a New York appeals court has determined that Le Moyne College wrongly removed graduate student Scott McConnell from its education program for endorsing corporal punishment in class.  FIRE first brought McConnell’s case to public attention last year.
• "New York Supreme Court Appellate Division Decision in McConnell v. Le Moyne College, January 18, 2006," January 18, 2006
• "Memorandum of Law In Support of Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction Immediately Reinstating Him as a Graduate Student at LeMoyne College," May 20, 2005
• "Student Dismissed for Personal Beliefs Files Multimillion-Dollar Lawsuit Against Le Moyne College," FIRE Press Release, May 5, 2005: Today, former graduate student Scott McConnell filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, because it expelled him from its education master’s program based on his personal beliefs. FIRE took up McConnell’s case earlier this year, reminding Le Moyne that its actions breached its own promises to respect students’ academic freedom and due process. When Le Moyne refused to address these concerns, FIRE publicly exposed Le Moyne’s repressive actions.
• "Excerpt from Le Moyne College’s 2004–2005 Student Handbook," May 5, 2005
• "‘McConnell v. Le Moyne College et al.,’ May 5, 2005," May 5, 2005
• "Letter from Le Moyne College Academic Vice President John Smarrelli to Scott McConnell, March 30, 2005," March 30, 2005
• "Letter from Scott McConnell to Le Moyne College Academic Vice President John Smarelli, March 14, 2005," March 14, 2005
• "Le Moyne College Dismisses Student for Personal Beliefs," FIRE Press Release, February 15, 2005: Administrators at New York’s Le Moyne College, which claims to protect academic freedom, have summarily dismissed an education student for writing a paper advocating strict discipline for students.  The chair of Le Moyne’s education department expelled master’s student Scott McConnell because of a “mismatch” between his personal beliefs and the goals of the college’s graduate education program.
• "Letter from Le Moyne College Academic Vice President John Smarrelli, Jr., to FIRE, February 8, 2005," February 8, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to Le Moyne College President Charles Beirne, February 3, 2005," February 3, 2005
• "Letter of Dismissal from Le Moyne College to Scott McConnell, January 13, 2005," January 13, 2005

Media Coverage

• "Campus Alert: Think like us—or else," New York Post, June 4, 2007
• "The Week," National Review, February 13, 2006: With the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Center for Individual Rights, McConnell took his case to court and won, successfully arguing that his school had acted in bad faith: It had promised him freedom of expression and then expelled him when he expressed himself.
• "Judge Orders School to Reinstate Spanking Supporter," Nathan Burchfiel, Cybercast News Service, January 23, 2006: Lukianoff said the college's president, Charles Beirne, "should be ashamed that his administration ignored its own rules, spent students' tuition money fighting litigation it invited, and cost one of its students a year of education simply because it did not like what he said in a theoretical paper."
• "'We Don't Need That Kind of Attitude'," Robin Wilson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 16, 2005: "It is not the job of a state university," says David A. French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, "to implement an orthodox ideology." Professors, he says, have no business assessing students' dispositions "after a classroom session where they are encouraging students to voice their opinions, and then extrapolating from those that these people cannot teach."
• "Teaching Student Expelled," Scott Norvell, Fox News, May 11, 2005: With the backing of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Scott McConnell is now suing Le Moyne College of Syracuse, N.Y., for violation of his First Amendment rights.
• "Student Sues N.Y. College Over Dismissal," Josh Gerstein, The New York Sun, May 6, 2005: A student who claims he was expelled from a training program for prospective teachers because of his support for corporal punishment and his opposition to multicultural education filed a $40 million lawsuit yesterday and demanded to be reinstated.
• "False Promises Of Academic Freedom," David Limbaugh, Creators Syndicate, May 5, 2005: If you want to get a real glimpse of the thought-tyranny of the academic Left, you should look at the case of Scott McConnell, who was recently expelled from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., because his personal beliefs didn't fit within the school's indoctrination grid.
• "Polly gaffes," Mark Bergin, World Magazine, April 16, 2005
• "'Pollys' Spotlight Politically Correct Excesses On U.S. Campuses," Jim Brown, Agape Press, April 14, 2005: A higher education watchdog group has unveiled its annual "Campus Outrage Awards," documenting the worst "absurdities" and most egregious examples of political correctness on college campuses this year.
• "2005 Campus Outrage Awards," Collegiate Network, Campus Magazine, April 1, 2005
• "Free speech on campus," The Baltimore Sun, March 24, 2005: LET'S DISPENSE with some tangents right off. It's a bad idea for teachers to spank students. There's evidence that women are not innately handicapped when it comes to math and science. And it's offensive hyperbole to cast the World Trade Center victims of the 9/11 attacks as "little Eichmanns."
• "College in Flap over Corporal Punishment Essay," Anthony Brooks, All Things Considered (NPR), March 21, 2005: A dispute has escalated at a small college in New York state and a student who was barred from the school's teacher training program because he wrote a paper in support of corporal punishment. Le Moyne College says the controversy is not about academic freedom, but about who is qualified to be a teacher.
• "To paddle or not to paddle? It's still not clear in US schools.," Stacy Teicher, Christian Science Monitor, March 17, 2005: When it comes to spanking, there's no such thing as a consensus in America's schools.
• "College Expels Student Who Advocated Corporal Punishment," Patrick Healy, The New York Times, March 10, 2005: As a substitute teacher in the public schools here, Scott McConnell says students are often annoyed that he does not let them goof off in class. Yet he was not prepared for the sixth grader who walked up to his desk in November, handed in an assignment, and then swore at him.
• "Free Speech Debate Spurs Lots of Words," Glenn Coin, The Post-Standard, February 27, 2005: When Hamilton College canceled a Colorado professor's appearance this month because of security concerns, it was only the latest in a recent string of free speech controversies at local campuses.
• "A Neo-Jesuit Education," David Holman, The American Spectator, February 25, 2005: Mainstream higher academia claims to worship "academic freedom" and "free speech" as its highest goods. Alas, Larry Summers is probably preparing his resume while Ward Churchill hits the speaking circuit. Now comes Scott McConnell, an Army veteran and until recently a graduate student in education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. For advocating a conservative policy, he has learned firsthand where academic freedom draws the line.
• "Student booted for 'personal beliefs'," WorldNetDaily, February 16, 2005: A master's student at a New York college was kicked out of the graduate education program because of what officials claim was a "mismatch" between his personal beliefs and the goals of the program.
• "National group faults Le Moyne," John Mariani, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), February 16, 2005: A national nonprofit group that promotes academic freedom has come to the aid of Scott McConnell, the graduate student denied admission by Le Moyne College last month for opinions he expressed in a term paper, and Ward Churchill, whose scheduled appearance at Hamilton College ignited a firestorm over his post-9/11 writings.