Temple College

Location: Temple, Texas
Website: http://www.templejc.edu
Type: No Type Yet
Federal Circuit: 5th Circuit

Speech Code Rating

Temple College is not currently rated in our system. To request speech code information about this school, please submit a speech code request form.

  • Temple College: Censorship of Cartoon and Nietzsche Quotation on Professor’s Office Door

    November 5, 2008

    On October 23, 2008, Temple College professor Kerry Laird was ordered to remove a satirical cartoon from his office door by Interim Vice President of Educational Services and Chief Academic Officer Mark Smith. Later that day, Laird placed a sign on his office door that said, “Gott ist tot,” a Freidrich Nietzsche quote that translates to “God is dead.” Smith demanded that Professor Laird remove the quote immediately, stating that the quote “can be considered very controversial and offensive.” Smith refused to reverse the censorship even after a faculty member and a student pointed out the double standard being used against Laird’s […]

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At present, FIRE does not maintain information on this school's policies.

  • Justice Department Demands Censorship at the University of New Mexico

    April 24, 2016

    By Hans Bader at Examiner On April 22, the Justice Department ordered the University of New Mexico adopt an unconstitutional speech code. It is demanding that the University label as “sexual harassment” all “unwelcome” sexual conduct, including “verbal” conduct (that is, speech). The university must encourage students to report it as such; and investigate it when it is reported… Read more here.

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  • TC prof strikes a blow for free speech

    November 6, 2008

    Temple College administrators deemed their own actions inappropriate after one of the college’s professors found himself in hot water with them for posting “God is dead” on his office door. The phrase, taken from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Gay Science,” is followed by the words, “God remains dead. And we have killed him.” By no means is this the first time Nietzsche’s words have created a firestorm. At least as early as the 1960s, students and teachers have used his words to provoke thought. Kerry Laird, a first-year literature and composition instructor, last month posted the philosopher’s words in […]

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  • Misunderstanding ‘Time, Place, and Manner’ Restrictions

    November 6, 2012

    This fall, FIRE is writing a blog series about how schools can reform their problematic speech codes and earn a “green light” rating from us—a distinction currently awarded to just 16 of the more than 400 schools in our Spotlight database, but one we hope to be able to award to many more in the years to come. In this series, we are discussing common problems with campus speech codes, focusing on examples from schools that are just a few small changes away from earning a green light rating. So far, we have examined how universities restrict speech by mandating […]

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  • Temple Misunderstands First Amendment Obligations, Continues to Seek Extra Security Fee from Student Group

    January 27, 2010

    Temple University has addressed FIRE’s concerns over the university’s decision to charge $800 in extra security fees for a presentation by controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders this past October, hosted by the student group Temple University Purpose (TUP). Unfortunately, in her January 21 letter—arriving the day after FIRE’s press release criticizing the action—Temple Associate General Counsel Valerie I. Harrison confuses binding Supreme Court precedent, reveals an arbitrary decision-making process, and misrepresents TUP’s “request” for extra security as giving Temple carte blanche to pass the cost of security for the event on to the group. FIRE responded yesterday with a second […]

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  • Eliminating Unconstitutional Speech Codes: A Nonpartisan Issue

    January 14, 2009

    Commentators and academic organizations from a variety of political viewpoints have recently denounced campus speech codes, echoing the alarm that FIRE has sounded for the past decade. In a January 2 Wall Street Journal op-ed, Peter Berkowitz discussed the need for fellow conservatives to find common ground after what many interpreted as a national repudiation of their views in the November elections. Social conservatives and libertarian conservatives, the Hoover Institution research fellow argued, must “concentrate their attention on the constitutional order and the principles that undergird it,” ushering in a new era of constitutional conservatism. One of the leading items on this agenda: A demand that public universities abolish speech codes and […]

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  • In Texas, First Amendment Imperiled in 2008

    January 1, 2009

    I’m not sure what happened down in Texas in 2008, but administrators at several schools have been unusually cowardly about even the slightest challenges to their ideas of good order on campus. During the election season there was the Great Non-Riot of 2008 at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), where two students faced punishment equivalent to suspension or expulsion for posting political signs on their dormitory-room window, which inspired students across campus to vow to do the same in solidarity and in a noble exercise of the right to freedom of expression. Once student outrage reached a high […]

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  • Weekly Media Round-Up: Binghamton Case Hits National Stage, Temple and Lone Star Cases Continue to Reverberate

    November 14, 2008

    Yesterday, FIRE went public with its efforts to protect the constitutional rights of Binghamton University graduate student Andre Massena. As you’ve already seen from Adam’s earlier Torch post, yesterday’s press release quickly brought the issue to the national stage, with the story appearing at The Volokh Conspiracy and in The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required). Just as importantly, Adam’s post pointed to the unrest Binghamton’s treatment of Massena has fomented in the graduate student body, where the Graduate Student Organization of Binghamton University unanimously condemned the university’s actions yesterday in a letter to Binghamton President Lois DeFleur. Be sure […]

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  • A Head Rolls at Temple College after Censorship of Nietzsche Quotation

    November 12, 2008

    It looks like Temple College’s president, Glenda Barron, is getting her house in order. About one hour after we wrote to her about the censorship of the words “God is dead” (in German) on Professor Kerry Laird’s door, she announced to all faculty and staff that such censorship had been “inappropriate.” Yesterday, the college announced that Lesley Keeling-Olson, Interim Division Director of the Liberal Arts division, was stepping down at the close of business that day—less than one week after FIRE intervened on behalf of Professor Laird. Keeling-Olson had communicated the censorship order that had come from Mark Smith, Interim […]

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  • Victory at Temple College Explained in Today’s Podcast

    November 10, 2008

    Last Thursday, FIRE’s press release described our latest victory for freedom of expression at Temple College (Texas), where the school’s president quickly reversed the censorship of a religiously themed cartoon and the Nietzsche quotation “God is dead” after receiving a letter from FIRE. In today’s episode of FIREside Chats, Adam Kissel, Director of FIRE’s Individual Rights Defense Program, discusses this case in further detail and calls on administrators at Lake Superior State University and Lone Star College–Tomball to follow Temple’s lead by undoing the censorship of controversial posted materials on campus. To listen to the entire podcast, click here.

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  • Weekly Media Round-up: Victory at Temple College Highlights FIRE’s Week

    November 7, 2008

    FIRE scored another victory for free speech and academic freedom this week with its successful intervention on behalf of Kerry Laird, an instructor at Temple College (TX) who was ordered to remove a religiously themed cartoon and a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche translating to “God is dead” from his office door. Within half an hour of receiving FIRE’s letter, Temple College President Glenda O. Barron swiftly and commendably reversed the order and reaffirmed Laird’s constitutional rights at the public college. Scott Jaschik, writing for Inside Higher Ed, ably captures both the gravity of the constitutional issues at stake at Temple […]

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  • College ends ban on Nietzsche quote

    November 7, 2008

    Whether or not “God is dead,” as Nietzsche famously argued in The Gay Science, the philosopher’s famous quote can once again be displayed on the doors of faculty offices at Temple College, in Texas. The president of Temple, Glenda Barron, and Mark Smith, who had earlier ordered a professor to remove the quotation from his door, sent out an e-mail message to faculty members reversing the earlier decision. “Recently, the administration required the removal of a cartoon and a Nietzsche statement from the door of a faculty member. We have reviewed the Temple College policies and believe that the action […]

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  • Victory at Temple College: School Reverses Censorship of Cartoon, Nietzsche Quote

    November 6, 2008

    In a victory for freedom of expression, Temple College President Glenda O. Barron has quickly reversed the censorship of a religiously themed cartoon and the Nietzsche quotation “God is dead.” A vice president required the removal of postings English Professor Kerry Laird had affixed to his office door because they “can be considered very controversial and offensive.” Approximately half an hour after FIRE faxed a letter to President Barron, she announced to all faculty and staff that the censorship “was inappropriate.” The trouble began earlier this term, when Laird posted a cartoon on his office door that used profanity in […]

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  • Victory for Freedom of Speech: Temple College Reverses Censorship of Cartoon, Nietzsche Quote

    November 6, 2008

    TEMPLE, Texas, November 6, 2008—In a victory for freedom of expression, Temple College President Glenda O. Barron has quickly reversed the censorship of a religiously themed cartoon and the Nietzsche quotation “God is dead.” After Mark Smith, Interim Vice President of Educational Services and Chief Academic Officer, forced English Professor Kerry Laird’s postings to be removed from his office door, Laird turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. “President Barron should be commended for her prompt reversal of her subordinate’s unconstitutional censorship,” FIRE Vice President Robert L. Shibley said. “This is a classic example of […]

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  • FIRE Letter to Temple College President Glenda O. Barron

    November 5, 2008

    November 5, 2008 President Glenda O. Barron Temple College 2600 South First Street Temple, Texas 76504-7435 Sent via U.S. Mail and Facsimile (254-298-8277) Dear President Barron: As you can see from the list of our Directors and Board of Advisors, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) unites leaders in the fields of civil rights and civil liberties, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of liberty, legal equality, freedom of religion, due process, and, in this case, freedom of expression and academic freedom on America’s college campuses. Our website, www.thefire.org, will give […]

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