Universities challenge free speech after Sept. 11

"Universities are no friends of freedom of speech," Thor Halvorssen, executive director of the non-profit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), said. "This is the most horrendous tragedy imaginable. Universities are not places of freedom."

CLAIRE CONLY/YH Professors at universities across the U.S. have faced challenges to their right to voice controversial opinions on the war. Yalies, protesting above, have not reported similar problems.

This harsh indictment comes in response to a series of actions taken by universities that have appeared of late to limit the right of professors to express opinions on the war effort. In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, universities across the country are trying to strike a delicate balance between supporting the First Amendment and keeping their diverse student bodies happy.

When Stephen Simpson, a mathematics professor at Penn State, posted his own pro-war views and links to pro-war essays on his university-hosted website, he upset many students. One of the websites read: "America must set a clear and unmistakable example—opposite to that of Vietnam, and identical to that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: those who attack Americans will be destroyed."

After receiving e-mails from offended students, Robert Secor, the vice provost of the university, forwarded the letters to Simpson but did not ask that the links be removed.

"Some students who had families living in the countries involved conveyed their concerns to me," Secor said. "We are not censoring free speech. We are just asking our professors to convey their opinions with sensitivity."

Halvorssen, however, interprets the situation differently. "Content is not an issue," he asserted. "No matter what these professors say, they are protected under the First Amendment to say it, regardless of the student reaction." As of now, the links to the essays remain on the website. Simpson declined to comment.

"I don't see that the administration acted wrongly," Tracey Tomlinson, an instructor in the English department at Yale, said. "[Simpson] commented in a public forum. It was fair enough for the administration to begin a dialogue between the students and the professor."

University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, feels that censorship is "very much against our policy." And some professors believe that universities may not even have the authority to restrict their professors' statements. Under their contracts, professors at most universities are protected from being suspended or dismissed for such reasons, Donald Green, A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Political Science, explained.

"There are no cases in which faculty have had their rights infringed, so far as I can tell," Green said. "The starting point for a university is the structure in which professors are tenured. It's designed so that there are no reprisals for what they say."

Yet in recent weeks, many other professors and university employees felt the free speech climate grow colder. At UCLA, library assistant Jonnie Hargis was suspended for five days after criticizing the United States' support of Israel in an e-mail. His e-mail came in response to a co-worker's e-mail, which praised American foreign policy. Library officials claim that there is a long-standing policy which forbids the use of the library e-mail system to send political or patriotic messages. "As we can see, regardless of what type of school it is, public or private, the university administration is afraid of the First Amendment," Halvorssen said.

Tomlinson suggested that this would not be an issue if professors simply acted with their students' well-being in mind. "I would hope that educators would be sensitive to their students' backgrounds and beliefs," he said. "If they're not, I don't see why they chose this profession."

As universities diversify their student bodies and attract students from many ethnic backgrounds, they are faced with the difficult task of creating an environment sensitive to the rights and feelings of the entire community. Groups such as FIRE believe that these universities can go too far in trying to create a neutral environment conducive to learning. "They are obsessed with not offending anyone," Halvorssen said. "The problem is that spineless, gutless morons run the administration [of these colleges]."

Levin adopts a more diplomatic tone. "We should make sure all parties and viewpoints are heard," he said. "I've always thought that the best response to speech is more speech."

Back to News...