The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) offers a video retrospective of the organization’s fight for student First Amendment rights.

For Professor Dave, nearly 50 years of working and studying at colleges and universities has been quite the rollercoaster ride.

Being a student and professor of philosophy, Professor Dave has a deep passion for challenging conventional wisdom and exploring new ideas. He was a student at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s when the free speech movement swept campus, and he naturally gravitated toward its message of academic freedom and unrestricted expression.

But Professor Dave was dismayed in the mid-80s to see the rise of speech codes on campus, including at the University of Michigan, where he taught. Often hidden within school harassment and civility policies, the regulations were wielded by college administrators to censor all sorts of protected student and faculty speech.

FIRE also includes some chilling information on a new free speech battleground.

On May 9, 2013, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education announced a new “blueprint” for campus sexual harassment policies that outlaws “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature”—including speech.

This new mandate read just like the bad policies Professor Dave had fought back against since the 80s.

Under this definition, he was pretty sure he would be considered a sexual harasser—and so would everyone else on campus.

Ever speak out for or against gay marriage?

Tell a friend about a Louis CK or Sarah Silverman routine?

Read a book for class with sexual themes?

Ask someone on a date who wasn’t interested?

Under the plain language of this new government mandate, you could be a harasser.