Monday, August 24, 2015

Remember When The "Free Speech Movement" Was Centered On College Campuses?

How quaint those days must seem now, with stories like this one out of Rutgers bombarding us on an almost-daily basis:
Rutgers University students, you are being watched.

That appears to be the message a Rutgers.edu web page would like the campus community to absorb. The web page is maintained by the Bias Prevention & Education Committee, which chillingly warns students that there is “no such thing as free speech,” and to “think before you speak.” From the web page:
Since 1992, the Bias Prevention Committee has monitored the New Brunswick/Piscataway campus for bias incidents and has provided bias prevention education to staff, students, and faculty.…

However, the university administration seems to be backing off some of the committee’s claims. When Campus Reform first reported the existence of the web page last week, it looked like this. By Monday, it looked like this. The difference? The university removed the assertion that there is no such thing as free speech.

I suppose this means that administrators recently reviewed the page, and stand by the rest of its claims.
Thank God for FIRE, though it's a shame they're needed at all.

1 comment:

Jean said...

The cache copy is for Monday the 24th and looks the same as today's. Anyway, that's pretty horrifying. Gotta save that for an upcoming display on campus free speech issues...