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Speech Codes of the Year: 2005

An outrageous number of colleges and universities severely restrict their students’ expressive rights—so many that researching and analyzing these restrictions is my full-time job. As 2005 draws to a close, I would like to highlight just a few of the particularly outrageous (but, sadly, quite common) restrictions that I found in the course of my research this year. These institutions should be ashamed of themselves.

Although these policies are so ridiculous they might make you laugh, they are serious business for students at these universities. Fortunately, many universities are unwilling to defend in public what they do in private, so exposing these speech codes to the public is an effective tool for change. For example, as FIRE announced in a press release today, Albertson College of Idaho revised its formerly repressive speech code after being featured as FIRE’s Speech Code of the Month in July 2005. As we begin a new year, FIRE will keep working hard to expose these unconscionable restrictions to public scrutiny. Happy New Year, and look for 2006’s first Speech Code of the Month next week!

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