Colorado College: Student Suspended for Two Years for Joke on Social Media

December 7, 2015

In November 2015, student Thaddeus Pryor sent an anonymous reply to the comment “#blackwomenmatter” on the social media application Yik Yak.

Colorado College: Students Found Guilty for Satirical Flyer

March 21, 2008

Two male students were found responsible for violating the school’s “violence” policy for posting a flyer that parodied a flyer from the Feminist and Gender Studies program. Colorado College’s “Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” had distributed a flyer called “The Monthly Rag,” which included a reference to “male castration,” an announcement about a lecture on “feminist porn,” and an explanation of “packing” (pretending to have a phallus). As a parody of “The Monthly Rag,” the two male students distributed a flyer called “The Monthly Bag” under the pseudonym “Coalition of Some Dudes.” The flyer included references to “tough guy wisdom,” […]

Freedom of Expression

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: April 11, 2018

Pre-approval by student life required: … Speeches, demonstrations, marches

…

The scheduling of a speaker or event known or considered to provoke public controversy requires adequate advance notice — usually four weeks.

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Gender-Based Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Violence Policy and Procedures

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: April 11, 2018

Sexual harassment is a form of gender-based discrimination.  Sexual harassment is any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, such as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: … such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s academic or work performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational or working environment (otherwise known as hostile environment harassment).

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Anti-discrimination Policies and Procedures

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: April 11, 2018

Discrimination includes harassment, which includes a wide range of abusive and humiliating verbal or physical behaviors that are directed against a particular person or persons because of [race, color, national or ethnic origin, marital status, disability, religion, veteran status, age or any other status protected under local, state or federal law.] This includes creating a “hostile environment” where the conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the person’s employment or educational experience at the College.

[…]

Harassment based on a person’s (or group’s) race, color, national or ethnic origin, marital status, disability, religion, veteran status, age or other protected status is a form of discrimination.  Harassment includes a wide range of abusive and humiliating verbal or physical behaviors that are directed against a particular person or group.  In some cases, the conduct may be such that it is clear that it is directed against a particular person or persons, even though the person(s) may not be explicitly identified.  Harassment includes conduct that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s academic or work performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational or working environment (otherwise known as hostile environment harassment).  Harassment has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s academic or work performance if, for example, it is sufficiently serious, pervasive or persistent as to create a hostile environment under both an objective (i.e., a reasonable person’s view) and subjective (i.e., the subject of an alleged violation’s view) standard.  The College will consider the effects of off-campus conduct when evaluating whether there is a hostile environment on campus.  To be the subject of an alleged violation, one need not be the direct recipient of the conduct; anyone affected or offended by the conduct may be a subject.

Harassment may include but not be limited to:  unwelcome texts, phone calls, internet-based communications, or other electronic communications that are based on a person’s (or group’s) race, color, national or ethnic origin, marital status, disability, religion, veteran status, age or other protected status.

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Freedom of Expression

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: April 11, 2018

Uncensored speech — which does not include a right to harass, injure, or silence others — is essential in an academic community and will be vigorously defended. Members of the college community should understand that standards of civility, consideration, and tolerance must shape our interactions with each other.

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Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: April 11, 2018

Information technology resources may not be intentionally used to view, store, print or send obscene materials or slanderous, harassing or threatening messages.

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Amended and Restated Bylaws of The Colorado College: Academic Freedom

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: April 11, 2018

The General College Community. Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the quest for truth, the development of students, and the general well-being of society. In the pursuit of these ends, all members of the College community have such basic rights as freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of personal beliefs, and freedom from personal force and violence, threats of violence and personal abuse. The exercise of such rights is subject to the College’s obligation to maintain an atmosphere consistent with the purposes of academic freedom, social responsibility, and civil order.

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Jefferson Muzzles go to 50 Colleges and Universities

April 20, 2016

By Eugene Volokh at The Washington Post The Thomas Jefferson Center (with which I’m involved as a member of the board of trustees) has just released its yearlyJefferson Muzzles, so I thought I’d pass along the center’s explanation of who the “winners” are this year. Note that the Ccnter supports academic freedom and free speech broadly, and not just those aspects that are legally protected by the First Amendment; so you’ll see many private institutions mentioned here, even though the First Amendment as such does not restrict private entities, as well as the public institutions to which the First Amendment applies… Read […]

FIRE Ranks the 10 Worst Schools for Free Speech

February 18, 2016

By Chris Nuelle at Campus Reform The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), recently released its annual list of universities that are notoriously bad for freedom of speech for 2016. Read more here.

Colorado College on List of 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 18, 2016

By Greg Young at Examiner.com The first amendment of the US Constitution reads in part, “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech.” Similarly, Colorado’s constitution offers free speechprotection, as stated in article II section 10, “No law shall be passed impairing the freedom of speech; every person shall be free to speak, write or publish whatever he will”. Read more here.

Two Oklahoma Universities Make List of 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 18, 2016

By Dallas Franklin at KFor.com OKLAHOMA – Two universities in Oklahoma recently made the list for the 10 worst colleges for free speech. Read more here.

University of Tulsa, OU Make List of Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 17, 2016

By Staff at News On 6 The University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma have made a list of the ten worst colleges for free speech. Read more here.

Colorado College Once Again Makes Notorious List

February 17, 2016

By Debbie Kelley at The Gazette Suspending a student in for the remainder of the academic year over a social media post earned Colorado College a spot on an annual “10 worst offenders of free speech” list. Read more here.

UPDATE: Colorado College Named One of 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 17, 2016

By J. Adrian Stanley at Colorado Springs Independent  We did hear back from Colorado College spokesperson Leslie Weddell, but she didn’t have a lot to say about the issue. Read more here.

FIRE Unveils This Year’s List of Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 17, 2016

By Leah Barkoukis at TownHall.com As high school juniors across the country begin the college search process, there’s no doubt school ranking, academic programs, and cost are all important factors in the decision-making process. But students (and their parents who likely foot most of the bill) ought to be mindful of one other aspect when considering which college or university is the best fit for them: free speech on campus. Read more here.

LSU on List of 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech

February 17, 2016

By  The Daily Advertiser at Shreveport Times PHILADELPHIA — Nearly half of America’s top colleges maintain speech codes that blatantly violate First Amendment standards, and this year Louisiana State University is one of them, according to a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Read more here.

Why Colleges Can’t Escape Social Media, & How They Can Support It

January 20, 2016

By Jessica Kennedy at HigherEd TD Even though most students are headed back to Colorado College for the spring semester, Thaddeus Pryor will not. … Read more here.

Montel Williams: Suspension of White Student Who Said Black Women Matter, They’re Just Not Hot is Outrageous

December 18, 2015

By Brande Victorian at Madame Noire One of the positive outcomes of #BlackLivesMatter and even Black Twitter’s social media momentum is that employers and universities are no longer taking chances when it comes to behaviors that might be seen as even borderline racist. Montel Williams would argue that’s also one of the negative consequences of the movement. Two days ago, the former talk show host took to Facebook to defend Thaddeus Pryor, a white male student at Colorado College who was suspended by his school for 21 months after responding to a Yik Yak post that said “#blackwomenmatter,” with, “They […]

College Student Suspended After Saying “Black Women Are Not Hot”

December 18, 2015

By Staff at Clutch Magazine Online Colorado College suspended a student for six months over a single “anonymous” comment he made on Yik Yak, a social media discussion thread app that allows users to post anonymously within a geolocated boundary. Thaddeus Pryor, a junior at the school, was removed from campus last month because one of his remarks violated the college’s policies against “Abusive Behavior” and “Disruption of College Activities.” His offense, which he admitted to, was replying to a post tagged “#blackwomenmatter” with, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Initially, Pryor was kicked off campus for 21 months, but […]

Where Speech Is Least Free In America

December 17, 2015

By George Leef at Forbes A good argument can be made nowhere in America is free speech less safe than on private college and university campuses. On public college and universities, the First Amendment applies, thus giving students, faculty members, and everyone else protection against official censorship or punishment for saying things that some people don’t want said. A splendid example of that was brought to a conclusion earlier this year at Valdosta State University, where the school’s president went on a vendetta against a student who criticized his plans for a new parking structure – and was clobbered in […]

Why College Students May Find “Star Wars” More Agreeable Than Our Galaxy

December 17, 2015

By Harold Brackman at Jewish Journal According to the campus free speech lobby FIRE (Foundation For Individual Rights in Education), Thaddeus Pryor has been suspended by Colorado College for two years—also banned from stepping foot on campus or attending another college—for admitting to sending an anonymous Yik Yak reply to“#blackwomenmatter”: “They matter, they’re just not hot.” I presume Pryor is white—or at least not African American. Colorado College is a private college, which means that it’s is not legally bound by the First Amendment, but whose Student Guide nevertheless states that “all members of the college community have such basic […]

Colorado College Suspends Student For 6 Months Over Yik Yak Post

December 16, 2015

By Tyler Kingkade at Huffington Post Colorado College, a well-ranked liberal arts school in Colorado Springs, suspended a student for six months over a single anonymous comment he made on Yik Yak. Thaddeus Pryor, a junior at the college, was removed from campus on Nov. 20 because a remark he made on Yik Yak violated the college’s policies against “Abusive Behavior” and “Disruption of College Activities.” His offense, which he admitted to, was replying to a post tagged “#blackwomenmatter” with, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Initially, Pryor was booted off campus for 21 months, but the suspension was reduced on appeal this month, […]

Student Suspended for Six Months for Saying “Black Women Are Not Hot” While Student Who Said White People “F*** Their Cousins” Was Not

December 16, 2015

By Staff at The Rebel Double-standards when it comes to discipline are nothing new on college campuses, but this story will make your blood boil. Colorado College suspended Thaddeus Pryor for six months after he was outed for making remarks on the social-media app Yik Yak. According to Infowars, Pryor responded to a post that said “#blackwomenmatter” by writing “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Pryor told The College Fix that, “Some people screenshotted the most racial things said [from Yik Yak that night], and they blew them up onto banners and hung them up in the student center in […]

Colorado College Suspends Student 6 Months for Yik Yak Comment

December 16, 2015

By Russell Westerholm at University Herald Colorado College reduced the suspension of a student that made a social media comment “deemed hurtful and distasteful,” but denied his request for a new disciplinary hearing. The school initially suspended Thaddeus Pryor for 21 months because he responded to a post on Yik Yak reading “#blackwomenmatter” by commenting, “”They matter, they’re just not hot,” The Colorado Springs Gazette reported. Pryor’s appeal for a new disciplinary hearing was denied, but Colorado College administrators reduced his suspension to only last the remainder of the academic year. He will be able to come back to campus after […]

Student Gets 6 Month Suspension For Saying Black Women Are “Not Hot”

December 15, 2015

By Staff at Education Views Another individual who said white people have “small dicks” not punished A student was suspended from college for six months for saying that black women are “not hot,” while another individual who commented that white people have “small dicks” and are always f**king their cousins” was not punished. Colorado College took the action against Thaddeus Pryor after he was publicly shamed and outed for making the remarks on the social-media app Yik Yak. Pryor responded to someone else who posted the hashtag “#blackwomenmatter” by saying, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Despite swiftly apologizing and deleting […]

Colorado College Student Suspended For Six Months After Saying Black Women Are ‘Not Hot’

December 15, 2015

By Michael Allen at Opposing Views Thaddeus Pryor, a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, says he was suspended for six months for comments he wrote on an anonymous social media app on Nov. 9. Pryor told The College Fix that someone wrote “#blackwomenmatter,” on Yik Yak and he added, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” “I was ashamed, because some people were clearly upset,” Pryor said. “So I deleted it.” Pryor recalled the next day: “Some people screenshotted the most racial things said [from Yik Yak that night], and they blew them up onto banners and hung […]

Columnist Suggests ‘Tolerance Training’ — for Protestors and Faculty

December 15, 2015

By Rebecca Downs at Red Alert Politics In a piece re-posted for Newsweek, George C. Leef writes “Needed on Campus: Tolerance Training.” His post is not the typical eye-roll inducing defense of diversity training, or sensitivity training, or whatever it happens to be called. Leef seeks to defend students, but not so much those student protesters as he does those who are affected by what can happen when inclusivity is taken too far. Leef explains the right to speech students have, being the First Amendment at public universities. At private universities, Leef refers to how “the protection for freedom of speech has […]

A College Banned a Junior for Six Months Over a Yik Yak Post that Said Black Women ‘Aren’t Hot’

December 14, 2015

By Abby Jackson at Business Insider Thaddeus Pryor, a junior at Colorado College, was barred from stepping foot on campus for six months for a social media post,the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. On the social media app Yik Yak, a post read “#blackwomenmatter.” Pryor responded with, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Pryor says he immediately regretted his remark. “I was ashamed, because some people were clearly upset,” Pryor told The College Fix. “So I deleted it.” But the damage had already been done. The next day the student center was filled with banners of many of the racial comments […]

College Suspends Student for Six Months for Saying Black Women are ‘Not Hot’

December 14, 2015

By Courtney Such at The College Fix Student says he was assumed guilty for writing much worse comments on Yik Yak Saying that black women are “not hot” got a Colorado College student suspended for six months – appealed down from 21. The sanction against Thaddeus Pryor was not the only action the school took against offensive comments posted Nov. 9 on the anonymous social-media app Yik Yak: His friend Lou Henriques was expelled. Their jokes took place on a night where the Yik Yak conversation on campus was centered around the theme #BlackLivesMatter. What started off as raising awareness quickly became “mud slinging,” […]

Colorado College Denies Appeal for New Hearing from Student Suspended for Social Media Post

December 11, 2015

By Debbie Kelley at The Gazette Colorado College administrators denied an appeal for a new hearing from a student who was suspended for two years because of a post he made on social media but did reduce his suspension to one year. Thaddeus Pryor, a southwest Colorado resident who had been a junior at CC, can return to campus after May 16, according to an appeal decision from Dean of Students Mike Edmonds that was announced in a Dec. 3 letter. Graduation is May 14. Until then, Pryor is banned from school property. At issue is this: To a post […]

Yik Yak, South Park and Racial Tension Shake Up Colorado College

December 9, 2015

By Chris Walker at Westword  It’s not uncommon for hundreds of Colorado College students to read or submit posts on Yik Yak during an average weeknight. The app, which allows users to post, or “yak,” anonymous text and picture messages that become visible to anyone with the Yik Yak app within a five-mile radius, is popular among college students looking for distraction from homework or studies. Students use it to post all sorts of things, from jokes or gripes about the school’s administration to gossip about parties around campus. But on November 9, the posts within Colorado College’s network took […]

Racism Issue at Colorado College gets National Attention

December 8, 2015

By Greg Dingrando at KOAA-5 COLORADO SPRINGS –The racism controversy on the Colorado College campus is drawing attention nationwide. Two students were suspended for making comments on the anonymous social media app called “Yik Yak.”  Now, a students’ rights group is defending the suspended students. The comments in question were made back in November.  Not long after, the two students were singled out. News5 is told that the students owned up to it and apologized, but apparently that wasn’t enough. The administration suspended the students for two years and banned them from campus — something the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) group said they […]

Fancypants College Bans Student For Two Years For Saying Black Women Are ‘Not Hot’

December 8, 2015

By Eric Owens at The Daily Caller Administrators at a private college in Colorado have suspended a student for almost two years because he responded to the comment “#blackwomenmatter” by saying “They matter, they’re just not hot.” The fracas occurred in November at Colorado College, a fancypants liberal arts enclave in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The forum for the exchange was Yik Yak, the anonymous social media app. The student, Thaddeus Pryor, is also banned from campus until August 28, 2017, as a letter from associate dean of students Rochelle T. Mason makes clear. In her letter, Mason […]

Colorado College Kicks out Students for Social Media Posts, South Park Screenshot

December 7, 2015

By Andrew Blake at The Washington Times A small liberal arts school in Colorado has kicked out two of its students for anonymously penning offensive social media posts and sharing a screenshot from an episode of South Park. Thaddeus Pryor, a junior at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, learned on November 20 that he had received a 21-month suspension for something he posted two weeks earlier on Yik Yak, a social media application which allows users to broadcast a message to others located within a given range. Responding to someone in the area who posted “#blackwomenmatter,” Mr. Pryor said: “They […]

Colorado College Suspends Student for 2 Years. His Crime? Telling a Stupid Joke.

December 7, 2015

By Robby Soave at Reason.com Administrators at Colorado College—a private school languishing under averitable tyranny of political correctness—have banned a student from campus for two full years because he made a stupid comment about black women. The joke, to be sure, was tasteless. Someone posted “#blackwomenmatter” on the anonymous commenting app, Yik Yak. In response, student Thaddeus Pryor posted, “they matter, they’re just not hot.” It was a troll-ish, mean-spirted thing to say, but not exactly a hate crime. Pryor was eventually identified as the author of the offensive joke (it’s not clear how), and brought before Senior Associate Dean […]

Don’t speak: Report ranks 2012’s ‘Worst Colleges for Free Speech’ in the country

April 2, 2012

Last week, the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education released its second-annual “Worst Colleges for Free Speech” list. The Philadelphia-based nonprofit named 12 U.S. colleges and universities that, in its view, continue to impose limits on student speech — even after intense pressure from FIRE and others.  FIRE president Greg Lukianoff released the list on his Huffington Post blog.  Topping the dozen was the University of Cincinnati, due to a pending civil rights lawsuit filed against them by Young Americans for Liberty, a Ron Paul-inspired activist group. In February, the officially sanctioned student organization was limited to a small “free […]

CC dinged over free speech issue

August 28, 2009

Staff Report at The Gazette The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has rated Colorado College as being among “the worst of the worst” when it comes to liberty on campus. The nonprofit civil rights group took out a full page ad of “Red Alert” schools in the 2010 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges issue, released this week. The organization monitors schools for what it sees as violations of free speech, due process, religious liberty and other civil rights issues. CC was singled out for finding two students guilty of violence for posting a flier that […]

Group scolds CC for free-speech violations

June 28, 2008

By Brian Newsome at The Gazette A national watchdog group has put Colorado College on its “worst offender” list for free-speech violations after two students were reprimanded for writing a satirical newsletter. CC joins a “red alert” list with four other U.S. colleges that The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, considers to post the most serious threat to free speech and civil liberties. It urges parents and students to “think twice” before going there. “While abuses occur on many campuses, Red Alert campuses have policies and/ or practices that pose a particularly dangerous threat to basic freedoms,” […]

What we’re buying at college

May 2, 2008

by Mona Charen Townhall.com   This week millions of high school seniors across the nation will mail forms and checks to colleges announcing their intention to matriculate. It’s the culmination of what some say was the toughest year ever to pry open the golden doors of academe. My husband and I are still a few years away from writing those whopping checks to doubtless already well-endowed institutions, but a spirit of rebellion stirs in my soul at the thought of it. We tamely fork over tens of thousands of dollars (about $45,000 per year) for the privilege of having our […]

EDITORIAL: Punished for the crime of satire

May 1, 2008

Las Vegas Review-Journal What do Colorado College administrators have in common with Islamic radicals? Besides having absolutely no sense of humor, they share the insane opinion that any satirization of their sensibilities constitutes an act of violence. Recall the international furor created more than two years ago when a Danish newspaper published a dozen cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. An exercise in free speech spawned waves of deadly protests around the world and calls from leaders of Muslim theocracies to prosecute the editors and artists involved. When dumbfounded Europeans tried to explain that free expression is a core Western liberty […]

Chainsaw Etiquette at Colorado College

April 25, 2008

Chainsaw Etiquette at Colorado College    

Face The State’s Interview with Adam Kissel of FIRE

April 23, 2008

Face the State   In town this week to discuss the state of Free Speech on America’s college campuses, Adam Kissel, director of the individual rights defense program for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, sat down with Face The State for an interview. FTS: So Mr. Kissel, what brought you here? AK: I was invited to speak at Colorado College to address the controversy over the punishment and censorship of students who distributed a satirical flier. The flier was a parody was of an earlier leaflet posted by the school’s Feminist and Gender Studies program, called “The Monthly […]

Joking students called on the carpet

April 12, 2008

A satirical response to a feminist publication at Colorado College has landed the college and two of its students in the middle of a fierce debate over freedom of speech. Chris Robinson and another student at the Colorado Springs institution decided to print “The Monthly Bag” after seeing copies of a feminist and gender studies newsletter, “The Monthly Rag,” in restrooms around campus. The edition of “The Monthly Rag” that prompted action included an announcement for a talk on feminist pornography, information on gender-bending practices, and a tidbit about a myth involving male castration. According to Robinson, it was representative […]

CC’s free-speech fears

April 8, 2008

by Vincent Carroll Rocky Mountain News   Chris Robinson is a one-man free-speech movement. Colorado College, where Robinson is a senior majoring in political science, believes free speech on certain topics is worrisome and must be corralled. So its thought police subjected Robinson and a fellow student (who has chosen to remain anonymous) to an inquisition last month after they published a parody of a campus feminist flier known as The Monthly Rag. For good measure, dean of students Mike Edmonds reached into his bag of tricks two weeks later and found Robinson and his colleague guilty of the farcical […]

‘What Can The Virginia Tech Tragedy Do For Me?’

April 7, 2008

by Greg Lukianoff The Huffington Post In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we all knew things on college campuses were going to change. Even the most cynical among us, however, probably didn’t think to themselves, “Hey, how can I use this horrible tragedy to my advantage?” But regardless of whether that despicable thought ever popped into college administrators’ heads or not, the simple fact is that some administrators have been using the campus shootings of the past two years as an excuse to justify cracking down on speech they don’t like. The most dramatic recent example of college […]

Flyers prompt free speech debate at Colorado College

April 3, 2008

By Heather Skold at KRDO News Channel 13 A war of words at Colorado College. It has one student saying college leaders have a double-standard over free speech. It all comes down to two flyers—one put out by the Feminist and Gender Studies Program on campus, and the other by a male student who says he just meant to poke fun at the feminist flyer. Chris Robinson, a senior political science student, and a friend who wishes to remain anonymous, posted a flyer across campus. On it, you’ll find snippets like “Tough Guy Wisdom,” a recent study questioning the glass […]

Satirical Flier Raises Ire

April 3, 2008

By Peter Marcus at The Denver Daily News Two Colorado Springs college students will appeal disciplinary action taken against them by the school for a flier that was meant to be a satirical response to a monthly feminist flier. Chris Robinson and a second unnamed student are being required by Colorado College to hold a forum to discuss the “issues and questions which (they) raised,” according to a disciplinary letter issued by Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Mike Edmonds. Operating under the name the Coalition Of Some Dudes, the two students distributed a flier, the “Monthly […]

Flyers spark free speech debate at CC

April 2, 2008

Two Colorado College students are drawing criticism for posting a flyer on campus that mocked a feminist publication and, the college says, made violent references. Chris Robinson, a senior Political Science major at Colorado College, says he and friend published “The Monthly Bag” as a joke, a parody of a Feminist and Gender Studies student publication “The Monthly Rag”. “It was a satirical journal of guy stuff,” Robinson said. However, the college didn’t see it as a joke. The flyers were taken down the morning they were put up, according to Robinson. “I thought that maybe we had struck a […]

Free speech an issue at CC after satirical flier is prohibited

April 1, 2008

By Brian Newsome at The Gazette Chris Robinson would see the racy feminist flier The Monthly Rag posted in bathrooms at Colorado College, and thought it “begged to be satirized.” So he and another student penned The Monthly Bag under the pseudonym “the coalition of some dudes.” Their flier was laced with male stereotypes and political jabs and came out shortly after the Rag’s latest edition earlier this year. Both newsletters contained vulgarity befitting a bathroom stall. But The Monthly Bag was taken down by college staff the day it came out. Robinson and his friend, who has not been […]

Quick Takes from Inside Higher Ed: Double Standard Alleged

April 1, 2008

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is criticizing Colorado College for punishing students who distributed a flyer that mocked a flyer distributed by feminist students on the campus. The feminist students’ flyer is called “The Monthly Rag” and the leaflet mocking it is called “The Monthly Bag.” When the latter appeared, with its authors identified only as “the coalition of some dudes,” college officials asked those responsible to come forward. When they did, FIRE asserted, they were ordered to hold a campus forum after being found guilty of violating the student code against violence. FIRE called this inconsistent and […]

Colorado College satire causes a stir

March 31, 2008

A Colorado college has found two students guilty of violating the conduct code against violence after the students distributed a satirical flyer poking fun at the college’s Feminist and Gender Studies program. Chris Robinson and a second student who wished to remain nameless now must hold a campus forum to discuss the very issues that landed them in hot water. The controversy began when Colorado College’s “Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” distributed their newsletter entitled The Monthly Rag. The newsletter contained information pertaining to the women’s studies program and also highlighted information on a lecture to be delivered by a […]

FIRE Announces 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2016

February 17, 2016

PHILADELPHIA, February 17, 2016—Nearly half of America’s top colleges maintain speech codes that blatantly violate First Amendment standards. But every year the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) takes a closer look at the past year’s incidents of college censorship to determine the nation’s 10 worst abusers of student and faculty free speech rights. This year’s list of the 10 worst colleges for free speech—published with detailed descriptions at The Huffington Post—includes many public colleges or universities bound by the First Amendment. Some of them, on the other hand, are private colleges that, though not required by the Constitution […]

As New Semester Begins, Colorado College Student Remains Banned from Campus for Six-Word Joke on Yik Yak

January 19, 2016

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., January 19, 2016—Yesterday, students at Colorado College arrived back on campus for the new semester. Sadly, one Colorado College student still isn’t able to join his classmates thanks to a six-word joke he posted in November on the social media application Yik Yak. The joke was an anonymous reply to the comment “#blackwomenmatter” and read: “They matter, they’re just not hot.” Thaddeus Pryor admitted to a Colorado College administrator that he was responsible for authoring the post and explained that he meant the comment as a joke. On November 20, 2015, Colorado College found that Pryor had […]

Colorado College Suspends Student for Two Years for Six-Word Joke on Yik Yak

December 7, 2015

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., December 7, 2015—Colorado College has suspended and banned a student from campus for nearly two years in response to a comment intended as a joke on the anonymous social media application Yik Yak. In November 2015, Thaddeus Pryor sent an anonymous reply to the comment “#blackwomenmatter” on Yik Yak. Pryor’s response read, “They matter, they’re just not hot.” On November 20, Colorado College found that Pryor’s post violated its “Abusive Behavior” and “Disruption of College Activities” policies and suspended him from the college until August 28, 2017. In the meantime, the college has banned Pryor from setting […]

Speech Code of the Month: Wake Forest University

May 5, 2014

FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for May 2014: Wake Forest University. Wake Forest’s “Campus Posting” policy explicitly restricts student postings on the basis of their viewpoint. Not only does the policy ban any postings subjectively deemed “sexist,” “racist,” “derogatory,” or not in “good taste,” but it threatens violators with fines and disciplinary action. With this policy, Wake Forest places an impermissibly heavy burden on students wishing to express controversial political or social opinions on campus.

The Unique Free Speech Challenges Facing Student Satire and Humor

February 1, 2013

As we wrap up Free Press Week, we take a look today at the unique challenges that college students face when engaging in satire and humor on campus, from humor magazines and editorial cartoons to satirical flyers and blogs. Like newspaper theft and denial of newspaper funding (which we have already explored this week), this is an issue that FIRE has seen time and time again on university campuses over the years. For any number of reasons, parody, jokes, and satire-whether in print or otherwise—tend to rankle students and university administrators alike as few other forms of expression do. Consequently, […]

Colorado College Remains in the ‘Red’

June 21, 2012

Colorado College (CC) has long been associated with one color here at FIRE: red, as in our Red Alert list, on which CC remains for violating the free speech rights of two students back in 2008. But recent actions have demonstrated that this association is warranted for another reason: CC’s continued maintenance of “red light” speech codes restricting all kinds of student expression. Despite FIRE’s efforts, CC has not seen fit to improve its red light status, meaning that campus expression is constantly in danger of being censored and punished—just as was the case in 2008. Longtime Torch readers will […]

The top 12 worst colleges for free speech

March 28, 2012

Who doesn’t love a good awards show? The gowns, the acceptance speeches, the brutal infringements of civil liberties … the excitement just never ends. Once again, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, where I work), has sorted through the hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation that severely restrict the First Amendment rights of their students, and is ready to present a “dirty dozen” of colleges that have attacked freedom of speech with such zeal that we cannot help but (dis)honor them. While it was difficult to choose from such a wide talent pool, certain schools took our breath […]

FIRE’s 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech in 2012

March 27, 2012

Here’s today’s press release:  PHILADELPHIA, March 27, 2012—The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released its 2012 list of the 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech in The Huffington Post today. Harvard is new to the list this year, joining Yale, Syracuse, and the University of Cincinnati at the top of the list. “These colleges and universities have deeply violated the principles that are supposed to animate higher education,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “Sunlight is one of the best disinfectants, and the public needs to know which schools to watch out for.”  Although schools appear on the list in no particular […]

Speech Code of the Month: Colorado College

November 2, 2011

FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for November 2011: Colorado College. Colorado College’s Student Code of Conduct contains a policy on “Respect” that prohibits “any act which endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student or group, or which destroys or removes public or private property, or which produces ridicule, embarrassment, harassment, intimidation or other such result.” (Emphasis added.) Got that? Embarrassing or ridiculing a fellow student is prohibited at Colorado College. This bans a wide range of speech, including the kind of harsh satire and parody that is often a powerfully effective form of […]

This Month in FIRE History: Controversy at Colorado College

March 18, 2011

Three years ago this month, FIRE began a battle for free speech and individual rights at Colorado College that continues to this day. FIRE first became involved at Colorado College when the school targeted two students for distributing a parody mocking a Feminist and Gender Studies program newsletter, “The Monthly Rag,” a publication that had included a reference to “male castration,” an announcement about a lecture on “feminist porn” by a “world-famous prostitute and porn star,” an explanation of “packing” (pretending to have a phallus), and a quotation from The Bitch Manifesto. In response, the two students had produced their own […]

FIRE in ‘The Huffington Post’ on America’s 12 Worst Schools for Free Speech

January 27, 2011

Today, The Huffington Post published FIRE’s list of America’s 12 Worst Schools for Free Speech. An expansion of FIRE’s Red Alert List of the “worst of the worst” schools for student and faculty rights, this “dirty dozen” slideshow includes the schools that come onto FIRE’s radar screen again and again for their repeated and egregious violations of fundamental rights, as well as schools whose policies are so bad that they simply had to be included. For longtime Torch readers, the presence of most of these schools on our list won’t come as a surprise. But we don’t want to give it all away here. Is […]

Time for Colorado College to get off FIRE’s Red Alert List

September 10, 2010

For the third consecutive year, Colorado College is called out for its shameful disregard of free speech in FIRE’s full-page U.S. News & World Report advertisement. As with its fellow Red Alert list members, we would dearly like to take it off the list, and for Colorado College to earn its way off would be simple. First, though, the matter of how it got on the list to begin with. Torch readers may remember that in 2008 Colorado College student Chris Robinson, along with one other student, parodied a flyer called “The Monthly Rag,” which had been distributed on campus […]

FIRE Launches New Video Series With Short Film on Censorship of Gun-Related Speech

June 30, 2010

PHILADELPHIA, June 30, 2010—Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is proud to release a new short film, “Empty Holsters: Gun Speech on America’s Campuses,” highlighting widespread campus censorship of student speech about guns. The film is the first in a new FIRE series focusing on how colleges and universities across America are preventing students and faculty members from speaking out on the weightiest political issues of the day. “In the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. Chicago, debate about the Second Amendment and gun rights is sure to be hotter than ever,” said FIRE […]

Changes in Leadership Give Red Alert Schools Golden Opportunity to Restore Free Speech

May 19, 2010

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Richard F. Celeste will step down as President of Colorado College at the end of the next academic year. This latest announcement means that four of the six schools on FIRE’s Red Alert list will undergo changes in leadership in the next year. Bucknell University President Brian C. Mitchell announced last year his intention to retire from Bucknell’s presidency, exiting Bucknell on June 30; Lawrence S. Bacow has announced his intention to leave Tufts University in June 2011; and embattled Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz plans to exit his post by then as […]

Still Looking for a New Year’s Resolution, Red Alert Schools?

January 14, 2010

Here’s an easy New Year’s resolution that Brandeis University, Bucknell University, Colorado College, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Tufts University can make: get off of FIRE’s Red Alert list of America’s worst violators of campus liberty! This week, FIRE sent the presidents of each of the six Red Alert schools a letter reminding them of their schools’ serious and ongoing violations of student and faculty rights, and just how easy it is for each of them to remedy their mistakes and reaffirm their commitment to freedom of expression. FIRE also included with each letter a copy of the […]

How Can Colorado College Get Off FIRE’s Red Alert List?

August 31, 2009

FIRE’s full-page ad in the current issue of U.S. News & World Report, right next to the annual college rankings, exposes the colleges and universities that are the “worst of the worst” when it comes to individual rights. These are schools where policies and past practices are so bad that FIRE actively warns students and faculty members to think twice before joining a community that violates its constitutional or contractual obligations to respect freedom of expression and due process. Schools don’t have to stay on the list forever. Last year, for example, FIRE’s U.S. News ad featured Valdosta State University, which quickly changed its […]

‘U.S. News’ Readers: FIRE’s Red Alert List Exposes the Worst Violators of Campus Rights

August 25, 2009

The Story Behind FIRE’s U.S. News & World Report Ad… Why does FIRE’s ad in U.S. News & World Report show a book padlocked shut? One of FIRE’s most shocking cases was that of Keith John Sampson, a student-employee at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) who was found guilty of racial harassment for merely reading the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan during his work breaks. Thanks to FIRE’s involvement and extensive media coverage, the finding against Sampson was overturned and his school record was cleared. Such stories of censorship are […]

FIRE’s Biggest Ad Campaign Ever Hits ‘U.S. News’

August 25, 2009

For the second year in a row, FIRE has run a full-page advertisement in U.S. News & World Report‘s America’s Best Colleges issue, released today, highlighting the colleges and universities that have earned FIRE’s Red Alert distinction for being the “worst of the worst” when it comes to liberty on campus. Brandeis University, Colorado College, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Tufts University are listed in the print ad, while Bucknell University, a late addition to the list, will be prominently featured in Facebook ads and in the school’s own newspaper.  But that’s not all—in the coming weeks, FIRE will also run ads in U.S. News‘ bestselling guidebook, every Red Alert school’s newspaper, and the papers of the top 25 largest and most prestigious universities in the nation, […]

This Month in FIRE History: Students Found Guilty for Satirical Flyer at Colorado College

April 23, 2009

I hardly have to “look back” in order to find the most disturbing April case in our 10-year history. Just last year Colorado College gained its place on our Red Alert (worst of the worst) list through its treatment of the satirical flyer “The Monthly Bag” and the students responsible for it. In January 2008, a group of students identifying themselves as the “Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” published a flyer entitled “The Monthly Rag.” The flyer contained, among other things, a reference to “male castration,” an announcement about a lecture on “feminist porn” by a “world-famous prostitute and porn […]

CCSU Professor on University’s Investigation of Gun-Related Speech

March 18, 2009

Jay Bergman, a history professor at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), has written on a controversy engulfing CCSU, in which undergraduate student John Wahlberg was reported to university authorities by his professor and then subjected to a police interrogation following his classroom presentation in support of the right to carry concealed firearms on campus. In his column for The Hartford Courant, Bergman highlights the CCSU controversy as indicative of the feverish political correctness and culture of fear in the academy regarding gun-related speech. While noting that Wahlberg considers the matter closed and crediting the professor for not hurting the student’s […]

Rights in the News: FIRE Issues Get the Lou Dobbs Treatment

March 13, 2009

As Will wrote earlier in the week, FIRE has seen far too many instances of students’ First Amendment rights being thrown out the window when used to support Second Amendment rights. FIRE has been all over the news concerning the most recent instance of this, in which a student at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) was reported to the police by his professor and subjected to an interrogation on the basis of a class presentation he had given in favor of concealed carry rights on campus. Building on a FoxNews.com front-page story (tipped this week in an editorial on the […]

Too Often, First Amendment Protections Denied to Second Amendment Speech

March 10, 2009

The First Amendment protects core political speech—and, as should be obvious, that protection extends to speech regarding the Second Amendment. This means that students at public universities and private universities that promise the right to free expression on campus must be free to engage in unfettered discussion of the merits of federal, state and local gun policy in the same way that they are free to discuss, say, agricultural subsidies, diplomatic relations with Cuba, or last night’s Daily Show. But an unfortunate consequence of the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University is that students are increasingly facing punishment […]

This Month in FIRE History: Florida College Bans ‘The Passion of the Christ’

January 29, 2009

In ten years, FIRE has seen astounding double standards at work on campuses across the country. However, even we were shocked by our case at Indian River Community College (IRCC) in January 2005, one of the worst cases of hypocrisy FIRE has ever seen. The case began when IRCC prevented the Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) from advertising and holding a viewing of the film The Passion of the Christ. IRCC justified its action by stating that the film was “R-rated” and “controversial,” but FIRE didn’t have to look hard to find evidence that the school had hosted R-rated films in […]

2008 Highlights: FIRE Places Full-Page Ad in ‘U.S. News & World Report’ Calling Out ‘Red Alert’ Schools

December 31, 2008

While FIRE works on cases from hundreds of schools in a given year, we have a special list for those schools that have shown unique intransigence in the face of criticism from FIRE for abusing student and faculty rights. We call that special list our Red Alert list, and right now five schools have earned a spot among the “worst of the worst.”  This summer, we decided to step up our campaign for reform at Red Alert schools by running a full-page ad in the 2009 edition of U.S. News & World Report‘s all-important America’s Best Colleges issue, right next […]

Exploitation of ‘Violence’ Charges Makes Colorado College One of 2008’s Worst Offenders

December 30, 2008

It’s a difficult task encapsulating FIRE’s efforts in 2008 in a single sentence, much less a single word. After all, the breadth of FIRE’s victories on campus this year ranges from the exoneration of a student at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis who was the subject of a disgraceful investigation stemming from reading a book with the words “Ku Klux Klan” in the title to securing the rights of an instructor at Temple College in Texas to display a quote by Nietzsche on his office door. In between, FIRE clarified the right to political expression at the University of Oklahoma in […]

Stop Invoking Virginia Tech to Punish Protected Speech

November 24, 2008

Of particular note in the court order in Barnes v. Zaccari, the federal civil rights lawsuit filed after former Valdosta State University (VSU) student Hayden Barnes was expelled for posting a collage on Facebook.com protesting the construction of new parking facilities at VSU, is this excerpt: For purposes of the motion to dismiss, the court determines that the inclusion of the word “memorial” by its mere utterance in a photo collage that was posted on an internet website simply cannot be rationally construed as likely to incite immediate violence, even in the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy that the […]

This Month in FIRE History: IUSB and Double Standards for Student Speech

September 18, 2008

In our nearly ten-year history, FIRE has seen many absurd cases in which students have been punished for exercising their First Amendment rights. One of our more interesting cases was finally resolved last September, when Indiana University–South Bend overturned its punishment of student reporter Robert Francis, whose only offense was asking questions of an actress in the cast of The Vagina Monologues. The play, which includes a great deal of graphic language and sexual content, is dedicated to the “celebration of female sexuality,” but Francis’s questions in a similar vein were deemed “lewd, indecent or obscene.” Francis got in trouble […]

Back to School: Remember FIRE’s Red Alert List

September 9, 2008

Students going back to school should be aware of the institutions that demonstrate a blatant disregard for their students’ rights. FIRE’s Red Alert list, recently featured in a full-page ad in the 2009 “America’s Best Colleges” edition of U.S. News and World Report, is a list of the “worst of the worst” when it comes to respect for students’ rights. These institutions egregiously violated their students’ rights and, despite having been informed of their wrongdoing, still refuse to admit and redress the harm they have caused. Below is a list of the Red Alert schools, what they did to get […]

Victory for Free Speech in University of Delaware Lawsuit

September 5, 2008

Last year, we wrote about the case of University of Delaware student Maciej Murakowski, who was barred from his classes and his dormitory pending a psychiatric examination because of material on his website that another student found offensive and which university officials found “racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic.” Murakowski soon was suspended and banned from campus altogether. Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware granted summary judgment to Murakowski on his free speech claim. Murakowksi had suffered under Delaware’s wildly unconstitutional zero-tolerance speech code, which required immediate notification of the authorities, day or night, on account of […]

FIRE Exposes Unrepentant Abusers of Liberty in ‘U.S. News’ College Rankings Issue

August 25, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, August 25, 2008—The 2009 edition of U.S. News and World Report‘s America’s Best Colleges issue, released today, includes a full-page advertisement from FIRE highlighting the five colleges and universities that have earned FIRE’s Red Alert distinction for being the “worst of the worst” when it comes to liberty on campus. Students should think twice before choosing to attend Red Alert schools, which include Brandeis University, Colorado College, Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, and Valdosta State University. “Every year, millions of students and parents turn to U.S. News and World Report to see the latest college rankings,” said FIRE President […]

FIRE Again Urges Colorado College President to Demonstrate His Recommitment to Free Speech

July 31, 2008

FIRE gave Colorado College President Richard Celeste another opportunity yesterday to restore the tarnished image of his school by once again calling on him to remove any disciplinary letters from the files of two CC students. Loyal Torch readers will remember this amazing case in which students were punished simply for posting satirical flyers. Back in February, a group calling themselves “the Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” posted a flyer around campus entitled “The Monthly Rag.” The flyer contained references to an upcoming lecture by “world-famous prostitute and porn star” Annie Sprinkle and male castration. In response, two CC students […]

Weekly Media Round-up: IUPUI Heats up the News Cycle, and Richard Celeste Continues to Get it Wrong

July 18, 2008

FIRE’s public efforts on behalf of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) student-employee Keith John Sampson, who was convicted of racial harassment for reading the book Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan, received a major boost this week, courtesy of the Associated Press. The AP ran a story covering IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz’s belated apology to Sampson following months of contemptible treatment at the hands of the university and IUPUI’s Affirmative Action office. The article, which first appeared on July 14, has been picked up by more than 200 separate news outlets, including […]

Colorado College President Blogs on ‘Monthly Bag’ Case, Makes Errors, Spins Untruths

July 17, 2008

This week the President of Colorado College (CC), Richard Celeste, blogged for a second time in the disgraceful case of two male students convicted of “violence” after they posted a parody of a feminist newsletter. The story is well known to Torch readers, but Celeste gets some of his facts wrong and shamefully spins others. Here is his entire post from July 14, with commentary: Follow-up to ‘The Monthly Bag’ I’d like to keep you updated on “The Monthly Bag” and one group’s reaction to the college’s response. See my previous blog entry for the beginning of this story. This […]

FIRE’s ‘Test for Free Speech’

July 16, 2008

In a recent entry on his blog Flow of Ideas, Colorado College President Dick Celeste writes of FIRE: An interesting note: In 2007, FIRE reviewed 346 colleges and universities, and fully 96 percent of them did not pass its test for free speech (only 2% passed; 2% were unrated). Celeste arrives at this figure by combining the number of schools that received either a “red light” or a “yellow light” rating in FIRE’s 2007 report Spotlight on Speech Codes 2007: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses. By FIRE’s definition, “red light” schools maintain policies that both clearly […]

Whence is Colorado College’s Board of Trustees Getting Its False Information?

June 26, 2008

Today we report in a press release that the Chair of Colorado College’s (CC’s) Board of Trustees has affirmed the school’s actions in finding that two students violated CC’s “violence” policy for posting a flyer that parodied a flyer of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. In a letter to FIRE, Board of Trustees Chair David van Diest Skilling wrote that “the College acted correctly in their handling of the students’ behavior” and that “there is no need for further action.” But it seems that the Trustees were not given either true or complete information about the case. Torch readers […]

Colorado College Board of Trustees Backs School in Punishing Students for ‘Violent’ Parody

June 26, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., June 26, 2008—The Chair of Colorado College’s (CC’s) Board of Trustees has affirmed the school’s actions in finding that student Chris Robinson and another student wishing to remain anonymous violated CC’s “violence” policy for posting a flyer that parodied a flyer of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. In a letter to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Board of Trustees Chair David van Diest Skilling wrote that “the College acted correctly in their handling of the students’ behavior” and that “there is no need for further action.” FIRE continues to call on CC to […]

Colorado College’s President Misses the Point (Again)

June 25, 2008

A friend of FIRE at Colorado College recently passed along a copy of the May 9th edition of The Catalyst, the school’s student newspaper, which featured a column written by Colorado College President Richard Celeste. The column, aptly titled “Trials and Tribulations of 07/08,” is a look back at the year’s controversies, including the most recent flap over a satirical flyer published by a handful of students. As many of our readers know, the flyer, entitled “The Monthly Bag,” was a parody of a publication by the “Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” entitled “The Monthly Rag.” The students involved were […]

When Schools Punish Creative Work

May 20, 2008

As Samantha points out this morning, today’s Wall Street Journal features an excellent article by Elizabeth Bernstein on schools that punish students for their creative work—sometimes with good intentions, when there is a real chance that the work signifies that someone is dangerous—and sometimes vindictively, such as in the case of student T. Hayden Barnes at Valdosta State University. Barnes, an environmentalist who was protesting against new parking garages, was expelled after he published an innocent collage (see for yourself) on Facebook.com that Valdosta’s president disingenuously chose to interpret as a threat to his life. The WSJ piece explains that […]

Colorado College Joins Worst Offenders of Liberty on FIRE’s Red Alert List

May 15, 2008

Thanks to its disregard for protected speech, obvious display of double standards, and lack of a fair judicial process, Colorado College has earned the dubious distinction of being placed on FIRE’s Red Alert list. Institutions on the Red Alert list are unrepentant offenders against basic rights that are guaranteed either by the U.S. Constitution or the schools themselves, and they have policies and/or practices that demonstrate a serious and ongoing threat to present and future students. Although given numerous opportunities to reverse the finding that student Chris Robinson and another student, who wishes to remain anonymous, violated the school’s “violence” […]

Colorado College Press Strategy: Parse Words, Ignore Substance

April 29, 2008

As we’ve mentioned in this space before, Colorado College President Richard Celeste is the former Governor of Ohio. And after reading the following exchange between Adam Kissel, Director of FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program, and Colorado College Media Relations Director Jane Turnis, it’s obvious Celeste has taught his staff some old political tricks—like parsing opposing arguments to suit your tastes, substance be damned. Let’s examine the exchange. Turnis first wrote FIRE late yesterday evening, deeming yesterday’s press release—which stated that “Colorado College has denied student Chris Robinson’s appeal of its finding that he and another student violated the school’s ‘violence’ […]

New Colorado College Video Now Up on Multimedia Page

April 29, 2008

If you’re interested in the continuing saga of our latest case at Colorado College, don’t miss the latest video installment on our multimedia page. We’ve just posted video of Adam Kissel’s appearance on Jon Caldara’s television show, Independent Thinking, on KBDI Channel 12 in Colorado. Adam discusses the Colorado College case and its implications with the Independence Institute’s Jessica Corry. This appearance was one of many Adam made on his recent media tour of Colorado, and is an excellent dialogue on the case. Check it out!

Colorado College Denies Students’ Appeal of Guilty Finding

April 28, 2008

Today’s press release unveils some disappointing news from Colorado College (CC). CC denied the appeal of student Chris Robinson who, with another student who wishes to remain anonymous, was found guilty of having violated the school’s “violence” policy for posting a flyer mocking a flyer distributed by the Feminist and Gender Studies program. Robinson is one of the creators of “The Monthly Bag,” a parody of the Feminist and Gender Studies Interns’ flyer “The Monthly Rag.” While the “Rag” hit on issues like the fear of male castration, feminist porn, and the like, the “Bag” threw back references to chainsaw […]

Adam Kissel’s Colorado College Lecture Available on Multimedia Page

April 28, 2008

On April 21, FIRE’s Adam Kissel visited Colorado College to give a speech on “The Free Expression Myth on America’s Campuses.” Adam has blogged about his lecture and media tour, and now we are able to offer you the entire audio of his speech, along with a Q&A session with the students and faculty at Colorado College. Visit our multimedia page for this latest episode of FIREside Chats and be sure to check back next Monday when we will be talking with Hayden Barnes about his on-going lawsuit against Valdosta State University.

Colorado College Travelogue, Part II: Media Tour

April 28, 2008

In my lecture at Colorado College (CC) on Monday—see Part I of this travelogue and listen to the podcast version—I noted: There is a good reason why the media in Colorado Springs, in Denver, and around the country have been all over this case. What has happened to the Dudes is profoundly unjust. The media continue to follow this amazingly shameful case. On Monday night before the lecture, I spoke with some of the top members of the Catalyst, the college’s student paper, and about 15 other students ranging from “very liberal” to pretty conservative. The students were fired up, […]

Colorado College Denies Appeal of Students Responsible for ‘Violent’ Parody

April 28, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., April 28, 2008—Colorado College has denied student Chris Robinson’s appeal of its finding that he and another student violated the school’s “violence” policy for posting a flyer that parodied a flyer of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. The school also has decided not to remove any letters about the case from the students’ files until after graduation. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is assisting Robinson in his case against the school. “First, Colorado College trampled over Chris Robinson’s right to engage in an obvious parody, and now the school has further embarrassed itself […]

Colorado College Travelogue, Part I: Lecture at CC

April 24, 2008

I returned yesterday after two days in Colorado Springs and Denver for a lecture at Colorado College and a media tour in the shameful case of Colorado College’s censorship and punishment of students for “violence” after they posted a parody called “The Monthly Bag.” (I will describe the media tour in another blog post soon.) On Monday night, having been invited by the Political Science Department and the Journalism Minor at Colorado College, I delivered my lecture to over 100 students and faculty. The audience was engaged and respectful (unlike some folks at the University of Delaware), asked great questions, […]

Adam Kissel Speaking at Colorado College Tonight

April 21, 2008

FIRE’s Director of the Individual Rights Defense Program, Adam Kissel, will be visiting Colorado College for several speaking engagements over the next two days. Tonight at 9:00 p.m., he will be giving a speech at an event sponsored by Colorado College’s Political Science department, on “The Free Expression Myth on America’s Campuses.” This event is open to the public and will be held in Bemis Great Hall. If you’re in the Denver or Colorado Springs area, be sure to tune in to Adam’s radio and TV appearances on Tuesday. At 10:00 a.m., he’ll be discussing FIRE’s case at Colorado College […]

Colorado College and LSSU Media Round-Up

April 18, 2008

April has been a media-friendly month here at FIRE and we’d like to take a minute to catch you up on all the latest coverage of our cases, specifically articles on Colorado College and Lake Superior State University. As Torch readers know, the controversy at Colorado College continues, with student Chris Robinson awaiting the decision of his appeal for being punished for posting a satirical flyer on campus. Media from all over Colorado have been covering the case persistently, including the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and numerous television news outlets. At Lake Superior State […]

Colorado College Feminists Do Not Seek Dialogue

April 16, 2008

Today’s Rocky Mountain News prints a very misleading letter from Tomi-Ann Roberts, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Program in Feminist and Gender Studies program at Colorado College. The paper headlined her letter “SPEAKOUT: Feminists at CC seek dialogue.” See below for my detailed responses to Roberts’s letter and for the simultaneous response from Vincent Carroll, editor of the paper’s editorial pages. I thought I would join the dialogue rather than speak merely as an outsider, so I requested to join the Feminist and Gender Studies listserv. Here’s the response I got from Roberts: You have requested to join […]

What Did President Celeste Really Think About The Monthly Bag?

April 16, 2008

In my piece examining Colorado College President Dick Celeste’s blog entry about his administration’s censorship of the satirical “Monthly Bag” newsletter and the punishment of its authors, I asserted that Celeste didn’t really believe that there was any violence threatened by the flyer. I wrote: I am trying to follow Celeste’s thought process on this. He has a flyer that he has decided is threatening because it talks about guns and chainsaws and sex and whatnot. So in order to get to the bottom of this and figure out who on campus is ready to make Colorado College the next […]

The Coalition of Some Other Dudes and the Range of an M1-A1 Tank

April 16, 2008

In response to the censorship and punishment by Colorado College of a flyer that was an obvious parody, another group of students has published a new issue of “The Monthly Bag.” These authors, again pseudonymous, are The Coalition of Some Other Dudes. These dudes are, by report, three men and one woman. Yes, women can be dudes. These authors also juxtapose “weaponry and sexuality.” This time, information about another sexual position is juxtaposed with statistics on the range of the M1-A1 tank and commentary about “Men’s roles in modern warfare.” President Celeste, Colorado College can never be too careful. This […]

Star Chamber at CC

April 16, 2008

I’m delighted to hear from the director of Colorado College’s Feminist and Gender Studies Program that many of her colleagues “disagreed” with the abominable way that two male students were recently treated after publishing a satire of a radical feminist flier called the Monthly Rag (see today’s Speakout, “Feminists at CC seek dialogue”). Not that professor Tomi-Ann Roberts actually uses the word “abominable.” She is too busy building her case that the satiric flier was a “hostile” voice – which it was not, and which you can verify by reviewing it and the publication it parodied at the Web site […]

Can State Officials Condemn Without Censoring?

April 15, 2008

Over at Popehat, a FIRE friend (pseudonymously “Ken”) takes me to task for my response to Colorado College president Richard Celeste’s false contention that the students who published the first issue of “The Monthly Bag” were not sanctioned or punished. Celeste’s sentence was: The students involved in creating this publication were found to have violated the college community’s standards, but they were not sanctioned or punished. In response, I wrote: The students were sanctioned and punished. Take a look at their letter of sanction by Dean of Students Mike Edmonds. Having a guilty finding on one’s record is a punishment. […]

Colorado College President Celeste Blogs on “The Monthly Bag”

April 14, 2008

It turns out that Colorado College President (and former Ohio governor) Dick Celeste has his own blog, “Flow of Ideas,” on Colorado College’s site. This is a very progressive thing for a college president to do, and I think he is to be commended for this attempt to get down in the trenches in the battle of ideas. Unfortunately, his blog entry about the case of Chris Robinson, Colorado College’s most famously persecuted satirist, is a transparent and poorly-executed effort at spin that nobody could find convincing if they knew even one fact of the case outside the carefully selected […]

“Muzzle Tov” to Brandeis and Valdosta State from Greg

April 11, 2008

In his latest Huffington Post blog, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff recaps the 2008 Jefferson Muzzle awards, bringing special attention to with “winners” at Brandeis University and Valdosta State University. He also puts in an early nomination for 2009’s Muzzles: Finally, while I know it’s only April, I already have two nominations for next year’s Jefferson Muzzles. First, I would like to nominate Colorado College, where administrators have used tragic school shootings of recent years as justification for finding two students guilty of “violence” for posting a flyer making fun of another flyer. I ask readers once again to compare these […]

Greg’s New Blog for ‘The Huffington Post’ Questions Campus Speech Abuses in the Aftermath of Virginia Tech

April 8, 2008

In his latest blog for The Huffington Post, FIRE President Greg Lukianoff discusses university administrators who have been citing the rash of campus shootings to justify punishing protected speech. Greg writes: In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy, we all knew things on college campuses were going to change. Even the most cynical among us, however, probably didn’t think to themselves, “Hey, how can I use this horrible tragedy to my advantage?” But regardless of whether that despicable thought ever popped into college administrators’ heads or not, the simple fact is that some administrators have been using the campus […]

Latest FIREside Chats Episode Features Colorado College

April 7, 2008

This week’s podcast features Adam Kissel, director of FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program, and Robert Shibley, FIRE’s Vice President, discussing the ongoing case at Colorado College. As we mentioned in our press release and in numerous blog posts, two students at Colorado College were deemed “violent” and punished for posting a satirical flyer on campus. This episode of FIREside Chats highlights all case points and calls for Colorado College to reverse its decision and apologize to the students for not living up to the promise of free expression it guarantees for all students and faculty.

Colorado College Still Swarmed by Media

April 3, 2008

The case at Colorado College, where two students were found guilty of “violence” for parodying a flyer, has generated even more media coverage since yesterday. Last night, KRDO News Channel 13, the ABC affiliate in Colorado Springs, ran a story on the case during the 10 o’clock news. Adam Kissel, FIRE’s director of the Individual Rights Defense Program, was interviewed over the phone for that story and student Chris Robinson was interviewed for one on FOX 21. On the Internet, the blogs have been buzzing as well, with coverage from Instapundit, the Independent Women’s Forum, Men’s Activism, Students for Academic […]

Colorado Springs Abuzz over Punishment for Parody

April 2, 2008

It seems like a lot of people in Colorado Springs are talking about the case of two students at Colorado College being found guilty of “violence” after they published a parody of a feminist flyer. Their crime: the “juxtaposition of weaponry and sexuality.” The Gazette of Colorado Springs put the story on its front page, noting that this is just the latest in a series of controversial cases involving student speech and behavior. KOAA NBC News (Channels 5 and 30 in Colorado Springs and Pueblo) made the case one of its “top stories.” The station notes that the college’s president […]

Colorado College President Defends “Violence” Finding against Satirical Flyer

April 1, 2008

This is startling. Scott Jaschik reports at Inside Higher Ed that Colorado College’s president, Richard Celeste, has defended the school’s finding that two students were guilty of “violence” for posting a satirical flyer. The flyer, called “The Monthly Bag,” had been posted anonymously by “The Coalition of Some Dudes” as a clear-as-day parody of a feminist flyer called “The Monthly Rag.” But the feminists did not like being parodied. They decided to go after the flyer by saying that they feared violence by the Dudes. Their ground was that the flyer mentioned “chainsaw etiquette” and the range of a sniper […]

Persecuted for Parody, Colorado College Student Fights Back in Op-Ed

March 31, 2008

As explained in today’s press release, Colorado College found two students guilty this month of violating the school’s policy against “violence” by publishing an anonymous parody of a publication of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. As Adam explains this morning, by punishing the students, Colorado College violates not only its own promises of freedom of expression, but also fundamental notions of fairness and common sense. Needless to say, as far as censorship on campus is concerned, this case is an instant classic. Luckily for his fellow students at Colorado College and all those who value free expression, Chris Robinson, […]

Colorado College Punishes Students for “Violent” Satirical Flyer

March 31, 2008

In a press release today, FIRE exposes the preposterous injustice perpetrated by Colorado College when it found two students guilty of “violence” after they distributed a satirical flyer mocking a publication of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. For having violated the school’s conduct code regarding violence, student Chris Robinson and a second student have been required to hold a campus forum discussing issues brought up by their satirical publication. This case is serious, but the subject matter is truly laughable. In early 2008, Colorado College’s “Feminist and Gender Studies Interns” distributed a flyer called “The Monthly Rag.” The flyer […]

Colorado College Punishes, Deems Students “Violent” for Satirical Flyer

March 31, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., March 31, 2008—Two students at Colorado College were found guilty of violating the school’s conduct code regarding “violence” after they distributed a satirical flyer mocking a publication of the Feminist and Gender Studies program. As part of their punishment, student Chris Robinson and a second student have been required to hold a campus forum discussing issues brought up by their satirical publication. The students have turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. “One flyer that mentions ‘male castration’ is not violence, but a flyer that makes fun of it by mentioning ‘chainsaws’ […]