George Leef:
A good argument can be made nowhere in America is free speech less safe than on private college and university campuses.
On public college and universities, the First Amendment applies, thus giving students, faculty members, and everyone else protection against official censorship or punishment for saying things that some people don’t want said. A splendid example of that was brought to a conclusion earlier this year at Valdosta State University, where the school’s president went on a vendetta against a student who criticized his plans for a new parking structure – and was clobbered in court. (I discussed that case here.)
But the First Amendment does not apply to private colleges and universities because they don’t involve governmental action. Oddly, while all colleges that accept federal student aid money must abide by a vast host of regulations, the Supreme Court ruled in Rendell-Baker v. Kohn that acceptance of such money does not bring them under the umbrella of the First Amendment.
At private colleges, the protection for freedom of speech has to be found (at least in most states) in the implicit contract the school enters into with each incoming student. Ordinarily, the school holds itself out as guaranteeing certain things about itself and life on campus in its handbook and other materials. If school officials act in ways that depart significantly from the reasonable expectations it created, then the college can be held liable.
As the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) puts it,“There is a limit to ‘bait-and-switch’ techniques that promise academic freedom and legal equality but deliver authoritarianism and selective censorship.”
Not only is there scant legal protection for free speech on private campuses, it is under vigorous attack from zealous students (and sometimes administrators) who regard it as their right and duty to assail anyone whose speech “offends” them. Saying or doing almost anything these days can conceivably land a student in trouble because someone has whined that it’s a “microaggression” or “harassment” or merely “insensitive.”
With that in mind, consider a recent case at Colorado College. If Franz Kafka or George Orwell had toyed with a similar plot, they’d probably have rejected it as too far-fetched. Here is what happened.
Back in November, a student, Thaddeus Pryor, wrote the following reply to a comment (#blackwomenmatter) on the social media site Yik Yak: “They matter, they’re just not hot.” A student, offended that someone was not taking things seriously, complained to college officials. After ascertaining that the comment had been written by Pryor, the Dean of Students summoned him to a meeting.
Pryor said that he was just joking. What he did not realize is that there are now many things that must not be joked about on college campuses. Some well-known American comedians have stopped playing on our campuses for exactly that reason, as Clark Conner noted in this Pope Center article.
In a subsequent letter, Pryor was informed by the Senior Associate Dean of Students that his anonymous six word comment violated the school’s policy against Abusive Behavior and Disruption of College Activities.
Did that comment actually abuse anyone? Did it in any way disrupt a college activity?
A reasonable person would say, “Of course not” but many college administrators these days are not reasonable people. They are apparatchiks imbued with the Social Justice Warrior mentality, eager to use their power to punish perceived enemies of progress like Thaddeus Pryor.
For having joked in a way that offended the wrong people, Pryor was told that he was suspended from Colorado College until June, 2017. Moreover, he is banned from setting foot on campus during that time. And in the final “pound of flesh” retribution, the school intends to prohibit him from taking any college credits elsewhere.
With FIRE’s able assistance, Pryor is appealing his punishment. Perhaps the college’s attorney will advise the president to back off since its own Freedom of Expression policy hardly suggests to students that they will be subject to severe punishment merely for joking on a social media site. If the case were to go to trial, there is a strong likelihood that a jury would find Colorado College in breach of contract.
Even if the school retreats from its astounding overreaction to Pryor’s harmless comment, the administration should worry that alums who aren’t happy that their school has fallen under the sway of thought control zealots will stop supporting it.
Its repugnant that a jest is taken so seriously or anyone has the right not to be offended. The comment the young man made was too close to the truth.