The Huffington Post has an article about the 12 worst college campuses for free speech, and UMass comes in at #4.
333 comments so far, interesting discussion on the meaning of "free speech", and the political bent of the organization who provided the list. They also gave UMass an award for "Speech Code of the Year."
I am very glad that you posted this Bart. This article caught my attention on my smart-phone, but then was lost as quick as I found it. What I have seen in nearly four years on this campus is both restrictions on free speech, and allowing free speech.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part the restrictions come in the face of the professors, limiting what words they can use and which words they cannot. At the same time I often am harassed by religious fanatics holding gigantic flags that tell me "I am living my life wrong and I don't even know it."
This idea of UMass being number four out of the 12 worst college campuses for free speech is very difficult to think about because I want to believe that our 1st amendment rights are being protected and enforced. However, I know that this is not the case, and more often then not WE are limited in what we can and cannot say.
More comments to come on this one, just wanted to let you know I also saw this article and was troubled by the point it was making.
Wow this is another traumatic blow to UMass, and it surprises me too. Don't we live in Amherst, MA, a liberal town in a liberal state? Yet here we are at a liberal university that limits free speech. This is pretty embarrassing for the school. When I think about it, it makes me a little ashamed to call myself liberal. I was unaware of the actual policy regarding rallies, but I knew about some of the censorship. The funny thing is that most of the times I've seen a group being censored or shouted down, or not allowed to bring their people to speak or present on campus, it has been a conservative group being held back by a liberal group, which is beautifully ironic. By the way I'd like to reiterate that I count myself as a liberal on most issues, but I can't help feeling that we're doing it wrong when it comes to free speech at UMass.
ReplyDeleteWow. Impressive percentage of northeast schools on that list. Do we just live in the wrong part of the country when it comes to free speech?
ReplyDeleteDamn... thanks Bart, and thank you to whoever did the digging in the article.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to think anymore, I was quite content with my thinking (I didn't know I wasn't radical enough because it was being suppressed by UMass policies).
I think we've always kind of had a struggle knowing when we're thinking outside the box and when we're being showed what looks like the outside of the box but is still inside a bigger box.
Sometimes people tell me what they think is the truth, sometimes they tell me to choose for myself which is the truth, sometimes there is no truth...
I wonder how many people pride themselves in being radical thinkers (I know I did... till I actually started reading the news).