Washington State University: Administrative Support for Heckler’s Veto of Student Play

Case Materials

• "Victory for Freedom of Expression at Washington State," FIRE Press Release, December 12, 2005: Thanks to a campaign led by FIRE, Washington State University has rejected the “heckler’s veto” and warned students not to disrupt a controversial play. The university financed and organized the disruption of a different play by the same student playwright earlier this year.
• "Washington State University ‘Mangina Monologues’ Notice," December 12, 2005
• "Washington State University Continues Campaign of Repression," FIRE Press Release, October 12, 2005: In recent months, FIRE has intervened twice at Washington State University to protect students’ freedom of expression.  After publicly proclaiming respect for their students’ rights, Washington State administrators have now made clear that, between their grading students on their politics and their paying for hecklers to disrupt student plays, liberty is still in dire straits in Pullman.
• "Letter from Washington State University Vice President for Equity and Diversity Michael Tate to Chris Lee, September 28, 2005," September 28, 2005
• "Letter from Chris Lee to Washington State University Vice President for Equity and Diversity Michael Tate, September 8, 2005," September 8, 2005
• "E-mail from Rich Kelley to Charlene Jaeger, July 19, 2005," July 19, 2005
• "Washington State University Bankrolls Vigilante Censorship," FIRE Press Release, July 18, 2005: In a shameful distortion of the First Amendment, Washington State University has morally and financially supported disruptive heckling and threats at a controversial student play, even going so far as to pay for hecklers to attend the performance. The university allowed the hecklers to repeatedly disrupt the play through shouts and threats of violence, yet Washington State’s president later defended the hecklers’ behavior as a “responsible” exercise of free speech.
• "Letter from Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins to FIRE, July 12, 2005," July 12, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins, July 1, 2005," July 1, 2005
• "Letter from Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins to FIRE, June 20, 2005," June 20, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins, June 17, 2005," June 17, 2005
• "Report from Washington State University’s Center for Human Rights Regarding ‘Passion of the Musical,’ May 13, 2005," May 13, 2005
• "E-mail from Raul Sanchez to Various Washington State Administrators, April 29, 2005," April 29, 2005
• "Washington State University Interdepartmental Invoice for 40 Tickets to ‘Passion of the Musical’," April 21, 2005

Media Coverage

• "University presidents battle for honors in spinelessness," John Leo, Universal Press Syndicate, May 1, 2006: Judges agreed they had never seen two candidates as eminently qualified as Rawlins and Holtschneider. Calling the pair “the Ruth and Gehrig of modern Sheldonism,” the judges awarded the golden no-spine statuette to both. Congratulations, Sheldon laureates 2006.
• "WSU ends ‘hecklers veto’ aid but threatens conservative student’s graduation," Mark Tapscott, Townhall.com, December 17, 2005: David French, FIRE’s president, explains why there was no question about the importance of stopping Washington State University. The school’s “defense of this vigilante censorship will encourage students to unlawfully silence others whenever they feel offended,” he said.
• "WSU finally gets it: Heckling isn't free speech," Tom Henderson, Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho), December 16, 2005: Shouting someone else down isn’t free speech. On the contrary, it’s a thuggish attempt to take away the other guy’s freedom. No matter what Lee has to say or how he chooses to say it, hecklers deserve the boot.
• "WSU takes hit on free speech," Shawn Vestal, The Spokesman-Review, October 22, 2005: A national higher education watchdog group says Washington State University is failing to protect the speech rights of students who have controversial or unpopular opinions.
• "Student plans new plays," Shawn Vestal, The Spokesman-Review, October 22, 2005: A student playwright at Washington State University who wrote a controversial "intentionally offensive" play last year is preparing new productions.
• "Challenging campus free speech through theater," Elizabeth Martin, The Daily Evergreen (WSU), October 18, 2005: Lee, a senior theatre major, will stay until he is 85 years old if he has to, he said. WSU has to learn students’ First Amendment rights before he leaves.
• "Race, free speech issues likely to linger," E. Kirsten Peters, Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Wash.), August 27, 2005: Christopher Lee, now a senior, wrote and produced “The Passion of the Musical.” The play was protested and disrupted on its last night by a number of minority students, many of whom gained admittance to the production using tickets purchased by the university’s Office of Campus Involvement.
• "Playing Politically Correct," Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, July 28, 2005: "Heckling a play is clearly censorship," said David French, president of the Philadelphia-based foundation. "You don't have the right to heckle it to death. Would the administration have taken the same view if the ROTC had come in and heckled an anti-war play?"
• "Group Claims Biased Campus Officials Bankrolled Protest of Student Play," Jim Brown, Agape Press, July 26, 2005: Washington State University is being accused of funding "vigilante censorship" of a controversial student play on campus. Student playwright Chris Lee's production, Passion of the Musical, had to shut down after 40 hecklers kept interrupting, shouting about its being offensive and allegedly issuing threats against cast members. And now an academic freedom advocate is charging that a university administrator used school money to pay for the hecklers' tickets.
• "Why does Washington State University Pay Campus Hecklers?," Mark Tapscott, Townhall, July 21, 2005: Not only do WSU students now know campus administrators will not protect their freedom of speech, those same officials are encouraging more such violations. As David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which is aiding Lee, observed: “Washington State’s defense of this vigilante censorship will encourage students to unlawfully silence others whenever they feel offended.”
• "Rawlins wrong on free speech," The Spokesman-Review, July 18, 2005: In a college setting, students should be encouraged to explore and to push boundaries, to test ideas and to challenge norms. By caving in to the protesters, Rawlins followed the footsteps of Stephen Jordan, who as Eastern Washington University president this spring tried, on thin pretext, to block controversial Colorado professor Ward Churchill from speaking on campus before relenting. EWU survived Churchill. WSU will outlast playwright Lee. Rather than encourage what FIRE calls "the heckler's veto," Rawlins should promote a variety of ideas – and order security guards to evict misbehaving playgoers at all times.
• "Everyone's a Critic," David Epstein, Inside Higher Ed, July 18, 2005: The curtain did not fall silently on the Devil. But rather to a chorus of “I am offended.”
• "It's time for FIRE to shout in a crowded theater," Tom Henderson, Lewiston Morning Tribune, July 18, 2005
• "Play sparks controversy at WSU," Associated Press, The Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 15, 2005
• "WSU chief stands by protesters at biting play," Shawn Vestal, The Spokesman-Review, July 14, 2005: Washington State University President V. Lane Rawlins refused Wednesday to renounce the school's position on an "intentionally offensive" student play that deteriorated into a shouting match in April.