Rhode Island College: Violation of Student’s Freedom of Conscience

Case Materials

• "Rhode Island College Continues Campaign Against Conservative Social Work Student," FIRE Press Release, May 26, 2005: Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work is requiring a conservative master’s student to publicly advocate for “progressive” social changes if he wants to continue pursuing a degree in social work policy. The school’s appalling disregard for student Bill Felkner’s freedom of conscience is the latest in an ongoing string of abuses by RIC administrators and faculty members that violate the right to fundamental freedoms protected by the U.S. Constitution.
• "Rhode Island College School of Social Work’s Policy and Organization Internship Requirements," May 26, 2005
• "Letter from Rhode Island College Master's of Social Work Program Chair Lenore Olsen to Bill Felkner, May 11, 2005," May 11, 2005
• "Rhode Island College Violates Freedom of Conscience," FIRE Press Release, February 23, 2005: The School of Social Work at Rhode Island College has threatened to reduce a master’s student’s grades if he chooses not to lobby the Rhode Island legislature for policies with which he disagrees. The student received a failing grade after protesting a professor’s admitted bias in class and after writing an essay in connection with a lobbying assignment that dissented from that professor’s approved perspective.
• "Letter from Rhode Island College President John Nazarian to FIRE, February 15, 2005," February 15, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to Rhode Island College President John Nazarian, January 28, 2005," January 28, 2005
• "Letter Indicating Rhode Island College Professor Sue Pearlmutter’s Refusal to Communicate with Bill Felkner over E-mail," December 14, 2004
• "E-mail from Rhode Island College Professor James Ryczek to Bill Felkner, October 15, 2004," October 15, 2004

Media Coverage

• "Campus Alert: Think like us—or else," New York Post, June 4, 2007
• "Course Requirement or Loyalty Test?," Robin Wilson, The Chronicle of Higher Education, December 16, 2005: "As bad as it is for universities to tell students what they can't say," Greg Lukianoff, director of legal and public advocacy for the foundation, wrote on its Web site, "it is even more threatening to liberty when they tell students what they must believe."
• "Providence speech patrol," Joel Belz, World Magazine, March 19, 2005: It was hardly unusual for conservative Christians a generation ago to worry themselves silly that they'd lost the battle over free speech. Especially on America's campuses in the 1960s and '70s, outrageous public expressions that struck many as unpatriotic, blasphemous, or obscene regularly gained the protection of the courts. People shook their heads in wonderment.
• "Grad Student Allegedly Downgraded for Conservative Stance," Jim Brown, Agape Press, February 28, 2005: Rhode Island College is under fire for allegedly forcing a student to lobby the state legislature for college-approved policies.