University of New Hampshire

University of New Hampshire: Student-Created Display on ‘Street Harassment’ Removed

April 7, 2017

FIRE wrote to the University of New Hampshire after the Dean of Students removed a student-created display depicting the text of reported instances of unwelcome sexual remarks.

University of New Hampshire: Eviction of Student for Posting Flier

October 22, 2004

Timothy Garneau, a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire, was evicted from his dorm for posting fliers joking that freshman women could lose the “Freshman 15” by walking up the dormitory stairs. Garneau was charged with offenses including “acts of dishonesty”; violation of “affirmative action” policies; “harassment”; and “conduct which is disorderly, lewd.” FIRE wrote UNH President Ann Weaver Hart explaining that posting a satirical flier was protected speech under the First Amendment, and that evicting Garneau from housing was an outrageous violation of his rights. UNH’s Judicial and Mediation Programs Office informed Garneau that UNH had rescinded all […]

Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Declaration of Student Rights and Rules

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: May 14, 2018

Individual rights under the United States Constitution shall not be abridged by the University.

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Student Social Media Policy

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: August 8, 2018

Guidelines: Students are expected:

1. To be respectful, careful, responsible and accountable for their use of social media. A student’s right to make a statement does not mean that the speech has no consequences in terms of impact on others, judgments made about the speaker by third parties, or the impact on future employers.

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Policy:

1. The University may, but does not regularly monitor the language and/or actions of students on public social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. However, while the University will defer to the user policies of the individual social medium, it will hold students accountable for reported related Code of Student Behavior violations. Students may not use social media to:

a. to commit discriminatory harassment, …
b. Post messages that threaten another, Art. III.3.b, incite imminent lawless action, Art. III, 17, or are otherwise unlawful harassment, Art. III.3.c, are defamatory or otherwise unlawful, Art. III.12.
c. Claim or imply that they are speaking on behalf of the University.
d. Intentionally inflict emotional distress on others.
e. Violate any provision of the Acceptable Use Policy, OLPM UNH.VI.F.5.6, the Student Code of Conduct or provision of state or federal law.

2. The University recognizes that social media behavior is entitled to extensive protections under the First Amendment. The University guarantees and protects the speech rights of students. This policy will be interpreted with those protections in mind.

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Outdoor Assemblies and Events, Solicitation and Dissemination of Viewpoints in Public Areas on Campus

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: May 14, 2018

Outdoor assemblies and events may only be held in designated areas on the UNH campus. Designated areas on campus are defined as those areas generally open to the public that do not serve a specific educational, administrative, research, health, residential, dining, athletic, or recreational purpose.

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A student organization or University unit seeking to conduct an outdoor assembly or event where up to 25 persons may be reasonably expected to attend are not required to obtain a permit. Although it is not necessary for a students planning a small event or assembly to obtain prior permission from the university, they are encouraged to contact the UNH Police Department to identify an appropriate area for the small event or assembly for scheduling purposes to minimize possible conflicts and to request additional information as needed.

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[A]ll applications for permits shall be assessed on a viewpoint neutral basis.

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Individual students, including members of student organizations, who wish to solicit for contributions, distribute literature (including requesting a small fee or voluntary contribution for the literature to defray expenses); and engage in sequential, incidental, brief and transitory verbal interactions with passersby on the sidewalks and in the parking lots on campus may do so at any time.

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Affirmative Action Office: Bias Response Protocol

Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: May 14, 2018

A bias incident is an act of a threat or act of harassment or intimidation, verbal, written or physical which is personally directed against or targets either an individual student/faculty/staff member or a group because of their actual or perceived race, color, veteran status or marital status or other category protected by law or UNH policy.

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Conduct that is protected by the First Amendment is not actionable under law, or the UNH Student Code of Conduct.

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Affirmative Action and Equity Policies- Policy on Harassment and Sexual Harassment

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: May 14, 2018

The requirements of federal and state law determine the definition of discriminatory harassment. The relevant body of law stipulates that any behavior may be considered to be harassing when: … such behavior unjustly, substantially, unreasonably and/or consistently interferes with an individual’s work or academic performance or creates an intimidating environment.

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In determining whether discriminatory harassment exists, the University will evaluate the evidence from the standpoint of a reasonable person’s reaction and perspective under the circumstances presented.

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[T]he following are examples of behaviors that may be judged to be harassing: repeatedly directing racial epithets at an individual; hanging a noose in an African-American’s work place or dormitory; painting a Nazi swastika on the door of a Jewish individual; repeatedly sending unwelcome, sexually-explicit e-mail messages; taunting a person about his or her sexual orientation, disability, or religion; making unwelcome sexual propositions; repeatedly telling derogatory gender-based or ethnic-based jokes; displaying sexually suggestive objects or pictures in the workplace except as those items may be part of legitimate pedagogical pursuits; giving unwelcome hugs or repeatedly brushing or touching others.

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Room and Board Agreement- Civility

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: May 14, 2018

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Room and Board Agreement- Common Area Use

Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: May 14, 2018

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Affirmative Action and Equity Policies- Policy on Harassment and Sexual Harassment

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: May 14, 2018

The University is committed as well to the free and open exchange of ideas, active discourse, and critical debate so necessary to a university. Accordingly, all members of the University of New Hampshire community have the right to hold and vigorously defend and promote their opinions. The exercise of this right may result in members of the community being exposed to ideas that they considered unorthodox, controversial, or even repugnant.

It is the policy of the University of New Hampshire to uphold the constitutional rights of all members of the university community…

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Student Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Student Code of Conduct and Conduct Process – Conduct Rules

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: May 14, 2018

Use of University computer facilities and/or computing technology to send or post obscene, harassing, or defamatory messages or to intentionally inflict emotional distress on another student, staff member or faculty member.

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UNH celebrates ‘green light’ free speech rating by nonprofit

May 13, 2018

by Kimberly Haas in New Hampshire Union Leader University of New Hampshire has earned a “green light” rating on free speech from a nonprofit that rates schools across the country. UNH became the 40th institution to earn the rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), according to a news release… Read more here.

My Turn: UNH is failing to lead on free speech

May 17, 2017

By ROSS CONNOLLY at the Concord Monitor  Across the nation, free speech on college campuses is under attack. From riots at UC-Berkeley to violence at Middlebury next door in Vermont, many Granite Staters have watched these events unfold in disgust, while regarding it as a problem that happens somewhere else. . . . Read more here.

Republicans Introduce Bill to Eliminate Speech Codes at NH Colleges

December 29, 2015

By Anthony Hennen at Red Alert Politics The largest newspaper in New Hampshire has endorsed the elimination of campus speech codes. The New Hampshire Union Leader on Sunday supported no speech codes for the University System of New Hampshire if “the university system expects its students to learn anything.” Recent campus controversies and protests from Yale to Missouri to Oberlin College have pushed free speech concerns and the role of a university education to the forefront of debate. Students, concerned that university administrations have not done enough to address racism and other issues, have protested and called for limitations on […]

3 Important Speech and Sex Stories From the College Outrage Files: Fall 2015

October 7, 2015

By Robby Soave at Reason Online  School has been back in session for just over a month, and there’s plenty of bad news—though a bit of good news—for advocates of freedom on college campuses. Here are three important recent stories that showcase the current landscape of campus speech and sex repression 1) The Pronoun Police Are Just Getting Started Watch your mouth: countless universities have policies in place to discourage students from using offensive language, and some—including the University of California—are exploring ways to make talking even less tolerable on campus. The University of Tennessee’s Pride Center was recently caught trying […]

Rep. Kathleen Rice Leads Summit on Anti-Cyberbullying

October 3, 2015

By Matthew Chayes at Newsday Rep. Kathleen Rice on Saturday touted an anti-cyberbullying bill that backers call necessary to combat modern-day harassment but opponents fear would threaten constitutionally protected speech. Named for a gay college student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge in 2010 soon after his roommate streamed via webcam a dorm-room hookup with another man, the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act would require campuses to enact anti-harassment policies covering a range of personal characteristics and electronic devices. “The laws have got to catch up with technology,” said Rice. “In order to get justice for victims and […]

Academic Fascism II

August 17, 2015

By Walter Williams at DeSoto Times-Tribune Last week’s column highlighted college campus absurdities and the ongoing attack on free speech and plain common sense. As parents gear up to fork over $20,000 to $60,000 for college tuition, they might benefit from knowing what greets their youngsters. Deceitful college officials, who visit high schools to recruit students and talk to parents, conceal the worst of their campus practices. Let’s expose some of it. Christina Hoff Sommers is an avowed feminist and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She’s spent a lifetime visiting college campuses. Recently, upon her arrival at Oberlin […]

New Yorker Writer Thinks ‘Speech Nuts’ Are Like ‘Gun Nuts’

August 10, 2015

By Anthony L. Fisher at Reason Online Writing in the New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh takes on Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson’s new book, End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun), which he describes as incoherent because it “both celebrates the power of the First Amendment and mourns the kind of ‘free speech free-for-all’ that they, suggest, the First Amendment is powerless to protect.” Sanneh also goes after liberal Fox News pundit Kirsten Powers’ book, The Silencing: How The Left is Killing Free Speech, claiming that she also “struggles to […]

FIREing back on UNH

July 31, 2015

By Paul Sand at Fosters.com To the Editor: In the wake of the massive unfavorable publicity and ridicule stirred up by the University of New Hampshire’s “Bias-Free Language Guide”, it was good to see UNH’s President Mark Huddleston take a forthright stand in favor of the First Amendment, and make a commitment to “free and unfettered” speech on campus. The bizarre and arrogant guide is now absent from the UNH web server. I hope President Huddleston follows through on his First Amendment enthusiasm by taking one more step: The Foundation for Individual Rights in education (FIRE) has long classified UNH […]

Language Police At University Of New Hampshire: Saying ‘American’ Is Now Politically Incorrect

July 30, 2015

By David Davenport at Forbes No wonder many Americans question the value of sending their kids to universities for four years. Oh wait, I better not say “Americans” since, at least at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), that is now a “problematic” word. The “Bias-Free Language Guide” at UNH also has problems with mothering, fathering, illegal alien, older people, rich person, poor person, etc. It’s a good thing I don’t teach there since, by now, I might well be charged with being an older rich American who has done his share of fathering. Speech codes have been a problem […]

Durham, We Have a Problem: A Failed Quest for “Bias-Free Language.”

July 30, 2015

By James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal “Language has been described as complicated, intriguing and beautiful.” So opens the University of New Hampshire’s “Bias-Free Language Guide,” whose unstated purpose is to make language a lot more complicated and less beautiful. “We offer this guide as a way to promote discussion and to facilitate creative and accurate expression,” the authors assert. “This guide is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed.” See what we mean? The guide apparently dates to 2013, but suddenly attracted national notice this […]

On Campus, Free Speech at Odds With Tax Funding

April 6, 2005

On March 22, David Huffman spoke out in the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) student newspaper against being excluded from an on-campus public event. He was excluded for being male. The incident spotlights the shell game being run on state campuses across North America under the guise of free speech. As a student, Huffman’s fees paid for the public forum from which he was barred. As taxpayers, his family underwrote his being treated like a black in the Ante-Bellum South. Critical commentary on the incident has dwelled upon freedom of speech. But such commentaries miss the deeper point that ‘freedom […]

‘Lyle’ Portends Life Without Freedom, ‘Friends,’ ‘Seinfeld’

March 10, 2005

Every year when I attend a national conference of administrators for America’s colleges and universities, one message comes through loud and clear: claims of harassment, sexual or otherwise, are out of control. At this conference, experts review harassment case law, recent suits and settlements from across the country. They also tell horror stories of absurd harassment accusations they have battled and quote statistics placing the cost of defending just one of these suits, no matter how frivolous, at hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the average award to plaintiffs equally high. In my work at the Foundation for Individual Rights […]

President of FIRE speaks about assault on free speech at universities across the country

March 10, 2005

This past Tuesday, David French, HLS ’94, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), spoke to a gathering of HLS students about how restrictive speech codes at universities are undermining the educational values upon which these universities are founded. French observed that even though he came to HLS from a religious college, not much changed in terms of the educational atmosphere. “I was going from one religious school to another religious school…it was just a different kind of religion.” This was a time according to French when Harvard was referred to as “Beirut on the Charles”. Upon […]

UNH student evicted over dorm fliers

October 31, 2004

DURHAM – A sophomore at the University of New Hampshire has been evicted from his dorm for posting fliers urging women to lose weight by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Timothy Garneau, 20, of Berlin, said he posted the fliers as a joke because he was tired of waiting so long for the elevator. Garneau lived on the seventh floor of Stoke Hall. Garneau posted fliers Sept. 3 that showed a fit woman in a leotard and said: “Nine out of 10 freshman girls gain 10 to 15 pounds. But there is something you can do about it. […]

UNH evicts student for fat frosh joke

October 30, 2004

  DURHAM — A University of New Hampshire student banned from his dorm for posting fliers that urged freshmen women to lose weight by taking stairs instead of an elevator says he won’t accept a watered down UNH judicial finding that might let him move back in to campus housing. “Definitely not,” said UNH sophomore Timothy Garneau, 20. “I’m appealing it. I firmly believe that if I did accept the situation that I got today, that I would not be placed back in housing.” Garneau was kicked out of his Stoke Hall dormitory on Sunday after UNH’s Judicial and Mediation […]

Student evicted from dorm for posting fliers

October 29, 2004

DURHAM -University of New Hampshire student Timothy Garneau thought he was being funny when he posted fliers around his dorm suggesting girls use the stairs instead of the elevator in order to lose weight. University officials weren’t in on the joke and kicked the 20-year-old sophomore out of his dorm room last weekend. Now a national nonprofit educational foundation devoted to protecting free speech and individual liberty has accused UNH of violating Garneau’s constitutional rights to free speech and due process. pears to be a computerized image of a woman wearing exercise gear. The sign read: “9 out of 10 […]

Dorm poster gets student kicked out

October 29, 2004

DURHAM – A University of New Hampshire sophomore was expelled from his dormitory last week for hanging a poster implying that freshman girls could avoid gaining the “freshman 15” by using the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Timothy Garneau, 20, of Berlin, said the poster was meant as a joke. The university judicial system found that the computer-generated woman in the leotard and sweatband on Garneau’s poster was among the few smiling. Garneau was found “responsible” for harassment, disorderly and lewd conduct, affirmative-action violations and lying to university officials about making the poster. He moved out of his double […]

Men: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

April 13, 2001

REPORT: Artists clash with campus censors

July 10, 2018

Art purged for being “one-sided,” among other excuses Censors, often not understanding the message, ban art rather than grapple with its meaning PHILADELPHIA, July 10, 2018 — Art censorship is nothing new. Spanish conquistadors smashed ceramics of ancient Peruvian cultures that portrayed gay and lesbian sex. The Roman Catholic Church of the 15th century was so intent on covering up penises that for decades even Michelangelo’s David wore a garland of leaves around his waist. But a new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education shows that art censorship remains alive and well, even on today’s college campuses, […]

The University of New Hampshire earns FIRE’s top rating for free speech

May 14, 2018

DURHAM, N.H., May 14, 2018 — New Hampshire’s flagship public research university has become the fortieth institution in the country to earn the highest rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The University of New Hampshire revised five speech codes, including a demonstration policy and a posting policy, to earn a “green light” rating, signifying that the university’s written policies do not imperil free speech. “Students and faculty at the ‘Live Free or Die’ state’s flagship university should be proud to know that their school’s speech policies fall in line with their state’s motto,” said […]

University of New Hampshire’s removal of anti-sexual harassment exhibit undermines free speech

April 4, 2017

FIRE and others are asking questions about the University of New Hampshire’s decision to remove a student-led exhibit criticizing street harassment and allow it to be re-posted only after making changes apparently acceptable to administrators’ tastes about what language is sufficiently inoffensive to be shared on a university campus. Student Jordyn Haime came up with the idea for the exhibit and worked with the university’s Sexual Harassment & Rape Prevention Program (SHARPP) to send a survey to students about their experiences with street harassment. After gathering the results, Haime created an exhibit incorporating the information gathered. The exhibit, displayed on […]

FIRE Testifies in Support of Free Expression Bill at New Hampshire State Legislature

February 4, 2016

On Tuesday, January 26, I had the privilege of testifying before the New Hampshire House Education Committee on HB 1561, a bill to protect freedom of expression at New Hampshire’s public colleges and universities by prohibiting the use of unconstitutional “free speech zones.” This bill is important for New Hampshire because at least two of its public institutions, Keene State College (KSC) and the University of New Hampshire (UNH), have policies that demonstrate a lack of commitment to students’ expressive rights on campus. For example, at KSC, students are permitted to engage in free speech activities only on the Student […]

In Attempt to Distance UNH from Bias-Free Language Guide, UNH President Ignores Ludicrous ‘Red Light’ Policy

July 31, 2015

This week, a “Bias-Free Language Guide” posted on the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH’s) website made its way around the Internet and was ruthlessly mocked by the masses before UNH decided to remove it. Although the document explicitly was not intended to be a list of words punishable by the university, online commenters suggested that the list of “problematic” words was overly broad. The Guide discouraged community members from using the words “American,” “homosexual,” “overweight,” “rich,” and dozens of others. In response, UNH President Mark Huddleston posted a statement on the UNH website Wednesday afternoon affirming the university’s commitment to […]

Four Key Points About Free Speech and the Feds’ ‘Blueprint’

July 15, 2013

It’s been more than two months since FIRE and the higher ed community were shocked by a letter issued jointly by the Departments of Education and Justice to the University of Montana. FIRE staff have blogged extensively about the Departments’ “blueprint” for campus sexual harassment in the last 10 weeks, but there are four crucial points that I believe bear special emphasis. 1. Overbroad and vague harassment rationales have been the primary justification and legal theory behind campus speech codes since the 1980s.  In one sense, the attempt to stretch the definition of harassment beyond all recognition is nothing new. Speech codes came into vogue on campuses […]

FIRE Featured in Two Articles in the ‘Boston Herald’

February 2, 2009

In yesterday’s edition of the Boston Herald, FIRE was fortunate enough to be the subject of two separate articles. The first featured FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate and his quest to land a spot on Harvard University’s Board of Overseers—something we have been championing since his bid was announced back in December. As quoted in the Herald, Harvey explains why he wants to join the board: “I hope to make Harvard a better place,” said Silverglate, a Harvard Law School grad, who needs 219 signatures from Harvard degree-holders to appear on the ballot. “It saddens me that Harvard persists in having, […]

Speech Codes Don’t Get Enforced?

October 15, 2007

As Will discussed earlier, Florida International University professor Stanley Fish argues in his latest “Think Again” column for The New York Times that campus speech codes do not present as much of a problem for students as one might think. In the process of reviewing filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney’s Indoctrinate U, Fish argues that any negative effects that speech codes may have on the state of free speech on campus is overblown because colleges will rarely, if ever, actually enforce their speech codes. Pointing to the fact that every speech code that has been litigated in the courts has ultimately […]

This Week in FIRE History: Madness at the University of New Hampshire

November 2, 2006

It has been two years since FIRE intervened at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) where sophomore Tim Garneau had been evicted from his dormitory and was living out of his car after being charged with harassment and “conduct which is disorderly, lewd.” What could he have possibly done that was so horrible that university administrators would throw him out of his home into the New Hampshire cold? Garneau, who lived on the top floor of his dorm, was frustrated with waiting at the elevator for people who were only going up one or two stories; to encourage these people […]

The Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Silly

October 18, 2006

As a free speech organization, we see pretty much every type of censorship out there. People are frequently censored at colleges and universities for engaging in controversial political speech. Other times, people are censored for engaging in speech that is crude and repugnant, but that is wholly protected. And then there are times that people seem to be censored for no reason at all. Today’s case at Marquette University is one of those instances. In the spirit of levity, here are a few more of the silliest instances of censorship we’ve seen here at FIRE: Gonzaga University tried to punish […]

‘Sexual Harassment Policies Need Reform’

February 15, 2006

Do not miss Wendy McElroy’s piece on the abuse of “sexual harassment” from grade school through college. As we wrote on the home page: McElroy aptly rebukes the AAUW for “the harm wrought to children by biased reports that lump ‘comments, jokes, teasing, gestures, or looks’ in with real violence.” FIRE salutes Wendy McElroy for bravely drawing attention to the ongoing national scandal of overbroad and vague campus sexual harassment policies. The misuse of sexual harassment rationales has been a constant theme in FIRE’s work, with students and faculty alike demonstrtating a tendency to cry “harassment” any time they are […]

Art and the Myth of the ‘Right Not to Be Offended’

October 21, 2005

Check out the fascinating story (“Censoring Art or Protecting Workers?”) about censored artwork in Inside Higher Ed. Apparently the University of Michigan at Flint is demanding that a graphic drawing called Hermaphrodite be removed from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center because it is creating a “hostile environment” for workers. Anyone who pays attention to the battle for free speech on campus knows that “hostile environment” is the most abused rationale for silencing expression on campus. As I wrote in a recent column about a legal decision that threatens to badly expand what constitutes “hostile environment”: Claims of harassment […]

File Under ‘See No Evil’

August 3, 2005

Terry Caesar penned a column Monday on Inside Higher Ed lamenting the chilling effect speech codes have on professorial humor. Citing one of FIRE’s favorite examples, the former speech code at the University of Connecticut, he wrote: To relate an official response to some example of a joke, or even an unintended joke, on American campuses today is itself to appear to be telling a joke. Yet everybody knows speech codes that ban “inappropriately directed laughter” (say) are no joke. It’s not clear to me if a professor can be held accountable for a student who spontaneously tells a joke […]

Spokane Newspaper Denounces WSU Censorship

July 19, 2005

Mere hours after FIRE went public in defense of Washington State University student Chris Lee’s free speech rights, the newspaper most devoted to covering Washington State University wholeheartedly endorsed FIRE’s position in a powerful editorial. The editorial is even sweeter given that the paper in question, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, was responsible for running a fairly muddled story written last week without even consulting FIRE. But in “Rawlins wrong on free speech,” the Spokesman-Review editorial board correctly writes: In a college setting, students should be encouraged to explore and to push boundaries, to test ideas and to challenge norms. By caving […]

University of New Hampshire Gets an Honor (One It Didn’t Want)

July 1, 2005

A notorious FIRE case received a “Dishonorable Mention” in the Boston Phoenix’s “Eighth Annual Muzzle Awards”: The University of New Hampshire taught Timothy Garneau a lesson on the perils of political correctness last November. After Garneau wrote and distributed a flier joking that freshman women could lose 10 to 15 pounds by taking the stairs instead of the elevator, he was ordered out of his dorm, and was forced to live in his car for three weeks. After the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education intervened, Garneau was reinstated. Garneau’s case is an outrage indicative of a worrisome trend, which […]

Phony Papers vs. Joking Posters

April 15, 2005

While this is certainly not a FIRE case, it is, undeniably, a pretty funny story from today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (registration required): Fill a paper with gobbledygook, add some fake charts, slap on a title dense with highfalutin scientific jargon, and—voilà!—a highfalutin conference may actually accept it. That’s what happened when three students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology submitted a nonsensical research paper to the ninth World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics, scheduled to be held in Orlando, Fla. in July. The paper, called “Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy,” was accepted […]

Sommers Speaks About Summers

March 23, 2005

FIRE Board of Advisors member Christina Hoff Sommers has written an interesting article on the Larry Summers controversy at Harvard. While the bulk of the piece addresses the way in which the media have covered the underlying gender difference debate, the last paragraph resonated with FIRE’s experience and work: Of course, offending feminist professors was not Summers’s only crime. He is outspoken, direct, and does not suffer fools gladly. Not only did he violate the holy dogma of social constructionism, he regularly violates a sacred commandment of modern education: Thou shalt be sensitive, nurturing, and protective of everyone’s self-esteem. Such […]

Tolerance Is Not a One-Way Street

March 4, 2005

After reading David’s recent posts on the “controversy” over Jada Pinkett Smith’s “heteronormative” speech, I simply must put in my two cents. Before you continue reading this post, I urge you first to read what she actually said. One of her comments (“Don’t let anybody define who you are…. Don’t let them put you in a box. Don’t be afraid to break whatever ceiling anybody has put on you.”) is, IMHO, a point that is as important as it is beautiful, and for her speech to be at the center of any controversy is stunning. I am deeply worried for […]

Occidental College’s Ongoing Shame: Part 1

March 1, 2005

One year ago this month, Occidental College radio show host Jason Antebi hosted his popular radio show Rant and Rave for the very last time. In this last show he mocked two student representatives who had previously tried to have him impeached from his student government position. The student representatives filed sexual harassment charges against him, the dean of students fired him from his radio show over the objections of the radio station’s student management, and the College found him guilty of violating federal sexual harassment laws. As shocking as this turn of events may be, it is hardly novel […]

Not to Mention…

February 4, 2005

And let’s not forget about our recent case at the University of New Hampshire, where a student was expelled from the dorm; sentenced to psychological counseling; found guilty of harassment, disorderly conduct, and violating the affirmative action policy; and forced to live out of his car for weeks simply for joking that freshman girls could lose weight by taking the stairs. Go Pats!

University of New Hampshire Evicts Student for Posting Flier

October 28, 2004

DURHAM, N.H., October 28, 2004—The University of New Hampshire has evicted a student from housing for posting fliers in his residential hall joking that freshman women could lose the “Freshman 15” by walking up the dormitory stairs. The public university found him guilty of violating policies on affirmative action, harassment, and disorderly conduct, and has sentenced him to mandatory counseling and probation along with his eviction. In appealing his sentence, student Timothy Garneau explained that the flier was intended to make light of the common frustration with people who delay the elevator by taking it for just one or two […]