Zak Patterson


The article I looked at discussed how while most think that colleges are harbingers of free speech, in many cases they instead limit it. Colleges have enacted codes that push students to be politically correct and civil so as to avoid controversies that can arise when free expression is allowed, such as protests and open demonstrations. The writer of the piece, Greg Lukianoff, works for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and studies by this foundation have found that 65 percent of colleges use methods that in their views went against the Constitution's right to free speech. The speech codes are intended to avoid controversy, but as the authors suggests, the codes "often backfire, suppressing free expression instead of allowing for open debate of controversial issues."       

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/opinion/feigning-free-speech-on-campus.html?ref=freedomofspeechandexpression&_r=0