Sunday, October 31, 2010

University of Virginia Eliminates All Speech Codes


Attacks on free speech in our universities and colleges in America have been going on for decades. Left-leaning deans and faculties have with impunity put in place the most severe restrictions of what students can and cannot say by creating blatant speech codes (written and unwritten); have turned students and professors alike into self-censors. These policies have gone unchecked by our politicians for far too long. It isn't that no one knows this is happening - our leaders know, alright. But, just as they have not the will to secure our borders, they have not the will to rein in the Leftist administrations on campuses throughout America. This has promoted a mind-numbing atmosphere in American academia.

We are literally fighting for our lives here.

Among the several student organizations fighting for free speech are The Chronicle of Higher Education, Students For Academic Freedom, and David Horowitz, president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

David Horowitz, once a liberal himself, has been a tireless warrior in this battle. Read FrontPageMag.com for accounts of this and other of his battles. Encouraging as this victory at UV is, I remain skeptical. The tenured Leftist professors are endemic within the universities, and it will take diligence and determined fights to rid our universities of these Marxist ideas. (see America's Moral Collapse here).

Still it is an encouraging sign, and should it become a trend, cannot but help free America from the shackles of tyranny.

University of Virginia Eliminates All Speech Codes, Earning FIRE's 'Green Light' Rating
October 28, 2010

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., October 28, 2010—This week, the University of Virginia (UVa) confirmed that it had eliminated the last of its policies that unconstitutionally restricted the free speech of students and faculty members. While more than two-thirds of the nation's colleges maintain policies that clearly and substantially restrict freedom of speech, UVa is now a proud exception, having fully reformed four speech codes. UVa has now earned a coveted "green light" rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

"President Teresa Sullivan and her staff should be commended for making these simple but important changes to guarantee the First Amendment rights of students and faculty members at the University of Virginia," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "Within three months of taking office, President Sullivan has overseen the transformation of UVa from a school that earned FIRE's worst 'red light' rating for restricting protected speech to our highest 'green light' rating. We hope that more colleges will follow UVa's sterling example and reform their codes to protect free speech."

American Renassiance has more on this.

One school at a time...