Institutional Threat on Free Speech — Tulsa

The University threat to free expression: The issue of how much a University can monitor online posting is highly controversial today. We live in a society that is becoming dominated by technology, particularly social media. Because we are still in the early stages of this form of communication the lines are blurred when it comes to deciding when a University or corporation can be involved in your online postings.

Last spring the University of Tulsa was thrown into the heart of this argument when senior, Trey Barnett, was suspended for his Facebook posts. In his Facebook posts he criticizes both fellow students and faculty members. The University of Tulsa was allegedly notified of these posts and took action. He was suspended without any form of hearing and told he cannot return until 2016, and may not complete his theatre major. When the student-led newspaper published articles reporting on the suspension they were met with subtle threats from administration to not dig deeper into the case, which is also a freedom of speech issue.

A link to the Huffington Post article can be found here.

Principles and discussion: There are a few fundamental issues with this case. First it is a slippery slope when deciding that a University has jurisdiction over student’s private online postings. If online hate speech is means for suspension, can you draw a line on what is and is not hate speech, especially if a hearing is not provided to the convicted? This falls into the “slippery slope” argument. The other issue in this case is that the student journalists were being silenced by administration for covering a case that does not paint the TU administration in a positive light. As the first amendment states, everyone, including journalists, have the civic right to write freely. America is founded on the being a democracy, in which it is not discouraged to criticize your leaders. We are not a nation of blind followers, we have the right to question authority and question decisions. Students should not be threatened for freely writing in the University of Tulsa Collegian newspaper.

— Published by Laci Lynn —