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ACTA urges NKU to drop speech code
After Northern Kentucky University professor Sally Jacobsen led her students in the unconscionable and illegal destruction of a student group's anti-abortion display, NKU won national praise for suspending Jacobsen and coming down hard on the side of free speech. But, as this blog noted, NKU's ringing endorsement of free expression did not match the university's actual policies. Now ACTA has brought this contradiction to the attention of NKU officials, urging the NKU Board of Regents to bring university policy into line with the principles of free inquiry and open debate.
According to a press release issued yesterday by ACTA, NKU's Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities actually encourages exactly the sort of behavior the university has recently repudiated:
...existing university policies still inhibit the free exchange of ideas on campus. NKU''s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities currently prohibits "harassing, annoying, or alarming another person" and "making an offensive coarse utterance, gesture or display, addressing abusive language to any person" as "misconduct" that is "subject to disciplinary action."
Such a policy, said ACTA, encourages the sort of behavior Jacobsen and her students displayed. "It not only sends the message that NKU students and faculty have a right not to be offended, but also raises the erroneous expectation that offensive expression should be punished and removed," ACTA said.
This is a great opportunity for NKU to prove its commitment to free speech and to set an example for other colleges and universities with similarly restrictive policies.
Posted by acta online at April 27, 2006 07:05 AM
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