Group going after PC gone amok

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has announced that it is filing a suit against Shippensburg University in Harrisburg, PA, claiming that their Code of Conduct it has adopted to regulate student behaviour violates their right to free speech. Shippensburg, of course, denies that they are doing any such thing. "Shippensburg University strongly and vigorously defends the right of free speech. As an institution of higher education we encourage and promote free speech among and between individuals and organizations. Through the exercise of this important right our students are able to see various aspects of an idea, analyze those ideas and form their own opinions on those ideas. The university is also committed to the principle that this discussion be conducted appropriately. We do have expectations that our students will conduct themselves in a civil manner that allows them to express their opinions without interfering with the rights of others." It may be a bit difficult to tell that, though, at least from what the article reports of the schools Code of Conduct.

Shippensburg's Code of Conduct, which is typical of colleges nationwide, gives each student a "primary" right to be free from harassment, inimidation, physical harm or emotional abuse, and a "secondary" right to express a personal belief system in a manner that does not "provoke, harass, demean, intimidate or harm" another.

The university also prohibits conduct that "annoys, threatens, or alarms a person or group," like sexual harassment, innuendo, comments, insults, propositions, jokes about sex or gender-specific traits and even "suggestive or insulting sounds," leering, whistling, obscene gestures.

The president of the university, Anthony Ceddia, supplemented the code last month with a policy limiting demonstrations and rallies to two specific "speech zones" on campus.

Now, I can understand some of these restrictions. Students should be protected from physical harm, harassment, threats, intimidation or abuse, but since when did anyone have a right to not be "annoyed" or "insulted"? When I remember my own days in college, I honestly can't think of a day that went by in which I wasn't annoyed, insulted, had jokes made at my expense, was the recipient of demeaning comments or subjected to obscene gestures. As unpleasant as it was, I also knew that it was largely late-teens and early-twentysomethings being the general assholes so many people in that age range can be.

Granted, there are points where such behaviour rises to such a level that it needs to be addressed and, in many cases, controlled or regulated through rules and punishment. If it's of sufficient intensity that a reasonable person would find themselves hindered from being able to function as necessary in the learning environment, it's a problem. Other people's prejudices, immaturities and stupidity should not be allowed to interfere with someone's ability to get the education that they went to college for, and if a student is reasonbly in fear for their safety or well-being, there needs to be a mechanism in place that they can take advantage of to solve the problem. But more often than not, things never get that far. Feelings get hurt, people get mad, but no moreso than what happens in everyday life, where you have to face such behaviours without any "code of conduct" to protect you from the cruelty people can show towards each other. Learning how to deal with that should also be a part of a student's education, because you'll certainly need to know how.

FIRE is making this the kickoff of a campaign against overly restrictive codes of conduct at schools around the country. They're planning to file suit against at least one school in each of the 12 federal appellate court districts, and will be posting a database of regulations from schools around the country next month at http://speechcodes.org.

Posted by thorswitch at April 24, 2003 02:01 AM | TrackBack