As many of you are aware, UTM’s Institute for Civic Engagement (ICE) has located what are called “Democracy Plaza” boards in the UC, library and the lobby of Gooch Hall. The purpose of these boards is to get student reactions to questions posed, questions related to current events in the news or to such celebrations as constitution day or earth day.
Since we have been doing this for a little over a year, we have come to expect irreverent words or phrases, including the n word and we have even had drawings of parts of the male anatomy added. A couple of times we have been requested by University staff to take the boards down because of some of these postings.
What are you thoughts on this? Should any “speech” be permitted? How much freedom does the first amendment give us to demean others or to violate norms of “decency”? A group called FIRE has taken the protection of free speech on campuses on as their cause. Check out their website if you have time. It is at: http://thefire.org.
They have taken on some interesting cases recently, such as the one at UW-Stout, where a professor put on his office door the poster found at this location: http://thefire.org/article/13587.html. University administration made him take the poster down and the professor later posted the words: “Warning: Fascism” and was subsequently disciplined.
I applaud FIRE for making their cases, although I might sometimes draw the line of what is free speech differently from the way they do.
Thanks for visiting the blog today and have a great weekend!!
