University of Georgia Drops Free Speech Zones
This is great news. Now if we can just get every other school with free speech zones to do the same thing, we’ll be in good shape.
Victoria Webb of Campus Reform has the story.
U. of Georgia abandons free speech zones
The University of Georgia released a new free speech policy earlier this month in light of a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Young Americans for Liberty, a nonpartisan student organization.
In March 2011, Young Americans for Liberty students were tabling with a debt clock display, portraying the growing national debt. University officials demanded students cease their expressive activities because they were outside the speech zone.
According to previous policy, students were only allowed to table in certain areas and had to request permission from university officials at least 48 hours in advance.
The new Freedom of Expression policy allows students to utilize a reservation system and simply notify the dean of students or campus police if spontaneous events grow larger than 10 people.
With the change in policy and removal of speech zones, ADF and YAL voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit.
“Universities cannot function as a marketplace of ideas if free speech is limited to less than one percent of campus,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham. “We commend the University of Georgia for understanding this and revising its speech policy so that students can speak more freely throughout campus without fear of punishment.”
Mike Raeber, executive director for UGA legal affairs, told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that the new policy fixes ambiguities in provisions of the old policy and clarifies the way the university has already been implementing its policy.
Comments
I would like to say thank God that sanity has finally appeared, but I am a cynic. It is much more likely that they thought they were going to lose the suits, and would have to explain to the board of regents why a lot of money was lost. The only way we will see a permanent return to sanity is to throw all the administrators off campus and start anew.
That is excellent. Every little drop helps.
The original reasoning behind the Free Speech Zones was sound. They in fact enhanced free speech.
The problem a Free Speech Zone was intended to address was that of those who use their “free speech” to impede the free speech of others. The classic example is a speaker invited to deliver an oration at an event on a college campus, an oration the PC types don’t want him to deliver. Short of kidnapping, they can’t prevent him from giving his speech, but they can prevent him from being heard by disrupting the event, most obviously by holding a protest at the same time and place and drowning out the speaker with their own bullhorns, drum circles, and concerts. When challenged, the PC squad will claim that they’re just engaging in a bit of free speech. But, if they are required to do their “speaking” in a Free Speech Zone, then the invited speaker can still be heard as long as the Free Speech Zone isn’t located right on top of his own oration. Everyone can speak, everyone can be heard, no problem. But this is not what the PC squad wants.
Of course, the concept was promptly perverted by the PC types and their allies, by using it as just another tool to shut up their opponents. The original concept didn’t prevent speech, it didn’t require official approval of content or speakers, it didn’t prevent crowds from gathering to hear either speech; it just prevented one speech from being made directly on top of another one.
So, eliminating the “perverted” Free Speech Zones also eliminates the original & sensible Free Speech Zones. Which unfortunately puts us back to square one; a concept of Free Speech which allows the PCers to effectively shut up their opponents. And there’s no way to make that seem like a good thing.
No student ID, no attend event. Then, if student interrupts presentation, toss out of event and take ID. Then kick student out of school. PCers will be eliminated fast. By the way, use same “rights” for disrupters that are given to men accused of rape at the school — That is, none.