College Daze

Since I have spent a great deal of money in Columbus over the past five years, I am always on the watch for these types of articles:

FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for September 2007: The Ohio State University.

The Office of University Housing at Ohio State, a public university, maintains a Diversity Statement that severely restricts what students in Ohio State’s residence halls can and cannot say. Students are instructed: “Do not joke about differences related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, ability, socioeconomic background, etc.” It also contains the following cryptic prohibition: “Words, actions, and behaviors that inflict or threaten infliction of bodily or emotional harm, whether done intentionally or with reckless disregard, are not permitted.” This policy both squelches the type of frank expression that often characterizes college student communication and violates students’ constitutional right to free speech.

So much for freedom of speech. Who knew that publicly funded universities would become the last bastions of totalitarianism?

CWCID: Glenn Reynolds