I resolve in 2009 to work to ensure more freedom for Americans, especially on college campuses.
College campuses should remain the place where the most freedom exists: free speech, active and uninhibited discussion of issues affecting communities and our country, and tolerance of unpopular opinions.
But as I have said in the past, more and more efforts to curb freedom on college campuses occur each year, and 2008 continued that trend.
The challenges to freedom take on many forms: vandalism, which targets displays on issues ranging from race, to politics to abortion; theft and destruction of student media when editorial positions offend some groups; administrators squelching free speech by canceling appearances of controversial speakers; unreasonable limits on where students can gather on campus to protest; and enforcing campus policies that stifle expression.
But some good news about campus freedom surfaced. I’ll use an incident at the University of Texas this past fall to illustrate. The university president did the right thing when he suspended a policy that prohibited students from displaying political information in their dormitory windows.
Connor Kincaid and Blake Kincaid, roommates and cousins, told news outlets that the university barred them from registering for spring classes after they refused in October to take down signs supporting then President-elect Barack Obama. After a media storm and a ton of bad ink, UT President William Powers Jr. supported the student rights.
Originally, Jeff Graves, an associate vice president for UT legal affairs, said that a 10-year-old UT policy prohibited posting signs in dorm windows in order to control campus appearance and to avoid the appearance that the university supported any candidate.
Democrat and Republican students did the right and constitutionally guaranteed thing: they protested. They encouraged students to put signs in their dorm windows.
Political debate — perhaps the oldest and most valuable of all free speech guarantees — lies at the heart of our country. And based on information from the UT Web site attributed to Powers — it would have been tough for him enforce such a ridiculous ban.
“As an enduring symbol of the spirit of Texas, the university promotes economic activity and social progress and is a leading center of knowledge and creativity," Powers had stated on the UT Web site.
He also wrote on the Web site about the value of volunteering and called it one of the most effective ways for students to put to work the philosophies, skills and theories learned in class. The past election revealed a significant increase in political activism, particularly among college students who volunteered in droves to support both candidates.
In the dorm window flap, Powers made UT practice what it and he preaches.
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