Posted by Todd Zywicki:
Roll Tide!
Kudos to the University of Alabama Student Senate for having the
courage to stand up to their own faculty and condemning the faculty's
endorsement of a speech code. The indispensible FIRE is on the case,
and has the [1]full story on its website.
From the Student's Resolution:
The Student Senate resolution, sent to UA President Robert Witt and
Faculty Senate President John Mason, passed unanimously on February
24, 2005. Authored by Student Senator Pat Samples, the resolution
states that "[f]ree speech is absolutely vital to the mission of
any university, where new and often controversial ideas must be
discussed openly and rationally in order to make advances in
knowledge" and proclaims that "[b]y defending free speech for all
students, one in no way condones any kind of hate or intolerance;
[o]n the contrary, one is promoting tolerance of others despite
their differences, especially their differences of opinion." The
student resolution also warned that adopting a speech code would be
a legal liability for UA and would "greatly tarnish its public
image." The resolution's call for free speech for all students
directly opposes the Faculty Senate's "hate speech" resolution
passed last September.
I want to also express my congratulations to several old friends of
mine on the Alabama faculty who were willing to stand with the
students in favor of free speech.
It really is extraordinary that we live in an age where students have
to educate faculty on the importance and educational value of free
speech.
References
1. http://www.thefire.org/
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