Hampton University: Punishment of Students for Literature Distribution

Case Materials

• "Partial Victory for Free Speech at Hampton," FIRE Press Release, December 6, 2005: Hampton University in Virginia has decided not to expel at least five of seven students for passing out anti-Bush flyers without university approval. Hampton students’ ability to pass out literature without university censorship was the subject of a letter sent by FIRE to the Virginia institution late last week.
• "FIRE Letter to Hampton University President William R. Harvey, December 1, 2005," December 1, 2005
• "Letter from Hampton University Dean of Men Woodson Hopewell to Aaron Ray, November 28, 2005," November 28, 2005

Media Coverage

• "Network Aims to Help Harassed Campus Conservatives," Kelley Vlahos, Fox News, December 26, 2005: “It used to be that some conservatives would concentrate on putting their heads down and just getting through,” said David French, president of the legal group Foundation for Individual Freedom in Education, which recently supported the right of a University of Wisconsin resident assistant to hold Bible study sessions in his dorm. “Now they are more confrontational.”
• "FIRE Protests Students' Punishment for Handing Out Anti-Bush Flyers," Jim Brown, Agape Press, December 13, 2005: FIRE objects to the sentence, Shibley says, "because we believe that, at a university that promises to give a liberal education and that upholds the general standards of academic freedom, students shouldn't be forced to run their political tracts by administrators before passing them out."
• "Clash of campus freedom, civility," Andrew Petkofsky, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.), December 11, 2005: Colleges may curb free expression inadvertently, or at least indirectly, by creating rules to govern where and when students may speak out, post handbills or hold events. But French said his organization gets even more complaints that grow from schools' overzealous efforts to protect people from harassment.
• "College News Roundup," Olivia Rosane, Columbia Spectator, December 5, 2005: On Nov. 18, three students were summoned to hearings with letters threatening expulsion as a maximum punishment. Days later, four more received the same summons. In response, groups such as the World Can’t Wait, the ACLU, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, issued letters of complaint to the university.
• "HU parents breathe sigh of relief," Wil LaVeist, Daily Press (Hampton Roads, Va.), December 4, 2005: Organizations like the ACLU and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education spoke out and fired off letters. I doubt that's the response McMorris and university officials expected when campus police shut down the small demonstration and recorded students' names and ID cards.
• "Five HU students must do community service," Beverly Williams, Daily Press (Hampton Roads, Va.), December 3, 2005