Mason Morgan
The restrictions of free speech should not be used as a symbol; they should be used as a response to a continued trend of misuse of communication privilege. This article is about the student government at Weseleyan University cutting funding for the student newspaper, The Argus. This was in response to the paper publishing an op-ed piece that criticized the Black Lives matter movement. The student government is cutting the budget from $30,000 to $13,000 and dividing those savings to fund more work-study positions among the school’s publications, including the Argus. This will most likely limit the newspapers issues to one a week rather than two. Many students are worried about this reaction as a symbolic gesture. Some say that they are worried about the future student governmental process and the precedent that they have to quickly revoke free speech.
The restrictions of free speech should not be used as a symbol; they should be used as a response to a continued trend of misuse of communication privilege. This article is about the student government at Weseleyan University cutting funding for the student newspaper, The Argus. This was in response to the paper publishing an op-ed piece that criticized the Black Lives matter movement. The student government is cutting the budget from $30,000 to $13,000 and dividing those savings to fund more work-study positions among the school’s publications, including the Argus. This will most likely limit the newspapers issues to one a week rather than two. Many students are worried about this reaction as a symbolic gesture. Some say that they are worried about the future student governmental process and the precedent that they have to quickly revoke free speech.
The interesting part
here is that The Argus said that they would not apologize. They say that the
published opinion of a student is nothing that they should have to be regretful
of. This follows the marketplace of ideas. It appears that the student
government is accepting of all ideas and opinions, even though they may be
generally unfavorable. Overall, this was a rash decision, in my opinion, that
was made to avoid controversy like what is currently happening at Mizzou and
Yale.
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