DePaul University: Censorship of Student Group Protesting Ward Churchill

Case Materials

• "DePaul University Revokes Vague Ban on ‘Propaganda’," FIRE Press Release, January 6, 2006: Under pressure from FIRE, DePaul University has lifted a vague ban on “propaganda” that it used last fall to silence student protest of a campus appearance by controversial University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill.
• "E-Mail from DePaul President Dennis Holtschneider to FIRE, December 21, 2005," December 21, 2005
• "DePaul Forbids Student Group to Protest Ward Churchill," FIRE Press Release, December 21, 2005: A student group that protested a campus appearance by University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill has become DePaul University’s latest victim of censorship. FIRE intervened after the university banned its College Republicans from posting flyers protesting Churchill’s visit and actually changed its own rules to prevent the organization from attending a workshop that he would be leading.  
• "DePaul College Republicans' Flyers Protesting Ward Churchill Appearance," December 20, 2005
• "DePaul University Policy Banning 'Propaganda'," December 20, 2005
• "FIRE's Research on DePaul University’s Shifting Flyer Posting Policy," December 20, 2005
• "Letter from DePaul University President Dennis Holtschneider to FIRE, December 12, 2005," December 12, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to DePaul University President Dennis Holtschneider, November 23, 2005," November 23, 2005
• "Events Page and E-Mail Closing Churchill-led Workshop to DePaul College Republicans," October 28, 2005
• "Formal Warning to DePaul College Republicans for Posting Flyers," October 26, 2005
• "Events Page Showing DePaul's Churchill-led Workshop Open to All Student Organizations," October 15, 2005
• "E-Mail from DePaul University to DePaul College Republicans, September 28, 2005," September 28, 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.
• "Fighting Against Political Correctness on Campus," Dave Eberhart, NewsMax, March 1, 2006
• "College Republicans Prevented from Protesting Speaker [Transcript]," Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, Hannity & Colmes (Fox News Channel), January 6, 2006: LUKIANOFF: They handled it extremely poorly. And I believe the focus should be on DePaul, where it belongs, because DePaul has a history of when they don't like someone's point of view, when they actually are faced with actual dissent -- they claim to endorse free speech at one moment, but then when they actually are faced with dissent, they try to squelch it.
• "DePaul Under Fire Again For Censoring Free Expression On Campus," Jim Brown, Agape Press, January 4, 2006: "DePaul University can't have it both ways," he says. "Either it respects free speech and respects its students' right to disagree with the decisions that DePaul administrators make, or it needs to come out and admit that free speech is not a priority at DePaul and that students aren't going to be free to express their own opinions. You can't have it both ways."
• "DePaul U Confronts Amerikan ‘Empire’," Steven Plaut, Front Page Magazine, January 3, 2006: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has repeatedly denounced DePaul's behavior in the Klocek Affair. FIRE has given DePaul University a speech code rating of “Red,” the worst rating possible.
• "Campus Left to Christians, Conservatives: Shut Up!," Mark Tapscott, Townhall.com, December 24, 2005: Take California State University at San Bernadino, for example, where administrators refuse to charter the Christian Students Association because the group thinks its members should be professing Christians. Imagine that!