Indiana University Southeast near Louisville, Kentucky is at the center of a free speech controversy over a school code that bars students from expressing opinions on campus except in designated free speech zones. The code flips the presumption of higher education: students must generally refrain from free speech and even apply for the right to express opinions. The code, first promulgated in 2004, is being challenged as an example of how universities are cracking down on free speech.
The IUS code is written poorly and conditions free speech on university approval. The code has an approval process for acts of “expressed opinions” which requires an application five days in advance. Thus in Kentucky you do not have a waiting period to buy a gun, but when in IUS you may have to wait for approval to engage in first amendment activities.
The guideline for students wishing to express opinions can be found here: Guidelines_FreeSpeech
It starts with this statement:
Persons wishing to express their opinions, distribute materials or assemble on campus in accordance with the state and federal constitution in relation to their right to free speech, must submit an Application to Schedule Facilities form. This form can be obtained from the Conference and Catering Office in the University Center of IUS. This Application should be submitted at least five (5) days prior to the event. Approval must be granted before an event can take place.
Notably, this is not limited to outside groups or non-students but anyone “wishing to express their opinions.” It also does not define the scope or meaning of “opinion.” Does this mean that I have to get permission to express my opinion on the Chicago Bears or my preference for skim over one-percent fat milk? The Code is written so poorly and broadly that it defies not just liberty but logic.
The regulation of speech, the school insists, is needed to prevent such speech from “endangering people or property.” Joseph Wert, associate professor of Political Science and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Indiana University Southwest, defended the code by noting “Governments have the right to restrict the time and place of these things…” He noted that the code does not regulate on the basis for content and treats everyone the same. That argument however misses the central point. First, the Code allows officials to waive these requirements on a case-by-case basis — creating a danger of selective application. (“If the 5 day period is burdensome, and depending on what other activities are being conducted on campus, the 5 days period may be waived at the Director of Campus Life’s discretion.”). Second, even assuming that the school does not indirectly regulate speech on the basis of content in granting permission to speak, the Code asserts the need for students to speak only with permission — a dangerous lesson to instill in students in a free nation. These free speech zones have become the rage in universities around the country — allowing schools to create an enforced silence on campuses by restricting free speech to designated areas like smoking.
Moreover, Professor Wert’s argument goes too far since, under this theory, a school could all but ban free speech since it is treating all speech equally. The disruption so feared by the school is an essential part of higher education. Students come to colleges to be exposed to different ideas and people. In this environment, they experiment with different views and interact with a wide range of opinions. These free speech zones cabin free speech and free thought — reducing our campuses to the same level of interaction as a remote learning site.
I tried to look this school up. It’s Indiana University SouthEAST as indicated in the body, but not the title.
Anyway, this is not some small private school. Indiana University Southeast is a regional campus in the Indiana University system. A state school that is limiting speech.
‘Governments have the right to restrict the time and place of these things…’” I don’t thing so.
My reaction would be to organize a protest, complete with media release, without their stupid permission And plead not guilty to any charges, complete with media release. The best way to get my mouth in gear is to tell me that I can’t. But I’m not a student there. Let’s hope there are students who won’t comply with that nonsense.
Leejcarrol,
I think the prime case in the Civil arena is still this one, Google it up…. Young vs some porn industry….detroit time place manner restrictions case…..
It was limited by Bush when he issued a kinda secret executive order or unofficial order to treat any war protesters as terrorist…… I think the order is still in effect with the Obama administration……
Barkin dog, I buy cheap t shirts and write all over them, about Romney policies, this is what democracy looks like when I was with occupy, etc. I always worried when I am in a store that someone from the store will ask me to leave but has never happened. Only once was I asked to remove it. I was at the polls and the judge told me it was ‘politicking’ within the I believe 50 foot rule. Once I told h im I had nothing on underneath but would be willing to comply he said, never mind.” (Hm writitng that maybe I should have been insulted (((*_*)) )
This rule is the direct opposite of why you go to university. The 5 day rule alone makes it somewhat certain that you cannot protest at the time the protest needs to be had.
“I would like permission to express my opinion on your idiotic and probably unconstitutional speech code. Please let me know when I will be permitted to do so.”
I suggest we all send in applications as above.
Facially. Auto correct…
It’s racially valid on its face…. But the time, place, manner restriction is too restrictive to be evenly enforced…. Therefore its over broad…..
Well, OK, this is just to say that your constitutional rights (state or federal constitution) are not self-executing, and you must apply first in order to access those rights. So they’re not saying you don’t HAVE those rights; you just have to ask them permission to USE those rights. That’s perfectly OK, isn’t it? I mean, if you want any of your other Constitutional rights, anywhere in the Union, you might have to say “Mother May I?” first. Or else, hire some lawyer for a few hundred K to go pursue those rights for you in a federal court, if they deign to grant jurisdiction to such as you. OR you might have to find some interested non-profit who will want to take up the cause in your behalf, if you’re saying something sexy enough for them to get interested. Otherwise, just suck it up and admit: Your Rights Went Away Long Ago and now there is only “eau de rights” and you can fuss about it as much as you like but unless you have a passport, there’s f*ck-all you can do about it. Now you live where I live. And the only reason I don’t have to make an application to say THIS is that it is of no consequence to anybody and anybody with power laughs about it if they even bother to read it.
idealist707 1, July 24, 2012 at 7:33 am
Dredd, heres a tease from your buddy. I did not in your comment find a link to your blog. Where are you hiding it? C’mon just a little one.
To continue being truthful, I depend on you to pioneer the upper strata of science and baloney. Both products taste gooh.
Hig hug
=============================
Guess what the Swede said to the liberal hippy on the San Francisco bridge?
“Don’t yump!”
“Joseph Wert, associate professor of Political Science and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Indiana University Southwest, defended the code by noting ‘Governments have the right to restrict the time and place of these things…'”
This policy seems to be at odds with their own Mission Statement which reads in part, ” … its mission is to provide high-quality educational programs and services that promote student learning and prepare students for productive citizenship in a diverse society …”
At an approx. cost of $13,000 per semester for a non-resident (minus approx 25% for state resident), parents and potential students should consider an institution of higher learning that practices what it preaches in its Mission Statement. In other words, cross Indiana University Southwest off your list thus spending your money to actually prepare for living in a diverse society where productive citizenship includes free speech without the need for government approval.
Mespo,
This is the Oral Roberts of the East……
Who would send their kid to this “school”? The Taliban?
Nal,
I was wondering the same…..
The code of conduct does seem to be over broad….. And systematically unenforceable….. What is the real purpose of the code? What are they trying to regulate….. Who….. When….. And then why….. It seems the standard set in the Detroit case…. Time, place and manner restrictions are too restrictive…. And evenly unenforceable……
The thing that they did was restrain free speech. I was not a frei sprech so I did not stand up. The next thing they did was come for the gypsies. I was not a gypsie so I did not stand up for them. Then they came and got the Jews, etc.
Southwest Indiana University: Did you know that the State of Indiana had the highest number of members of the Ku Klux Klan of any state in the 1920s? Some 250,000.
Can someone please post this message on the bulletin board? Oh, I forgot, we need Professor Wert’s permission. Where did that schmuck go to school?
Tee shirts kids. Lots of tee shirts with First Amendment spelled out. Then perhaps a map depicting the location of your Unreconstructed school. Yeah, Unreconstructed. That phrase pertains to people who dont believe that the Constitution applies to state action.
Well I certainly think this is a step in the right direction. We need to get over the silly concept of universities as bastions of open thinking, expanded horizons and higher education! We tried that but the graduates tended to lose their conservative moorings and see a broader world with much more complexity and nuance than is good for certain powerful forces in the country.
Universities need to become glorified trade schools where complex thought is not encouraged and incoming freshmen do not have their beliefs challenged. Texas is in the forefront of this effort and ISU deserves a golf clap for their attempt.
or put it another way. How far must a case be driven and how formulated so as to provide quick remedy to other cases couched in the same way?
Dear Professor,
I did not know that education had degenerated so far as to restrict free speech. Is it so in the higher universities there and in France? Frightening.
“Governments can regulate such things…..”. He thinks
so; and concludes that they are a government.
Unfortunately, I belonged to the non-protesting group, ie engineers in class of ’59. We were only interested in a good job. We were also hoping to find a girl who would not make fun of our limp…..you know, the one from sleeping and carrying your “slipstick”, ie we did not have calculators. Stone ages.
And less than 10 years later in ’68, the students in Paris had the government scared and gendarmes were cracking heads. (The one in Stockholm was ridiculous, but scared the government too. At least the government here said so.)
Can’t you just see this spreading?
“Groups larger than 3 persons must always have a school-appointed monitor to report the information exchanged.”
To write idiotic things is easy, which this demonstrates.
Seriously, can there be no legal remedy which makes it a class action, and like Brown vs School Board… make it apply in the whole USA. Or is case by case appeal to First Amendment protection the only way?
Did Dean Joseph Wert obtain permission to express that opinion?
Dredd, heres a tease from your buddy. I did not in your comment find a link to your blog. Where are you hiding it? C’mon just a little one.
To continue being truthful, I depend on you to pioneer the upper strata of science and baloney. Both products taste gooh.
Hig hug
There are a couple of bloggers here who must have helped draft those rules. One of them claims to be a scientist, and wants to re-write HTML to fit their concept of free speech.
The code of Indiana University Southwest is also quite bizarre.