Daily Archives: March 4, 2015

Free Speech Debate?
There was a "Freedom of Speech Debate" in Copenhagen, I guess the shooter also thought this was stupid. This is a clip from Some Garbage Podcast, it airs liv...

By: Christopher Cantwell

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Free Speech Debate? - Video

Carlow University's founders, the Sisters of Mercy, held values that align with the philosophy of a peaceful liberty, which made it the perfect place to set up two 4- by 8-foot plywood boards to form a free speech wall, a student leader said Monday.

Passers-by are free to write messages on the boards at the Oakland-based Catholic university, said Carlow senior Richard Haynes, 30, a history major.

It really is up to the interpretation of who is writing it, said Haynes, founder and president of the Carlow chapter of the Young Americans for Liberty, which sponsors the wall.

Handwritten messages range from those supporting equality and social justice, such as Liberty is Truth and America should give up racism for Lent, to calls for changes to the education system, such as There should not be any grades.

Founded in December, the Carlow chapter of the Young Americans for Liberty set up the wall Feb. 24 on the campus. It plans to take it down Friday.

The group obtained permission to set up the wall from the vice president of student engagement. The $100 for the supplies to build the wall came from Young Americans for Liberty.

Carlow is a university where a free exchange of ideas is expected, university spokesman Drew Wilson said.

These ideas are going to be here whether there is a wall or not, he said.

Founded in 2008, Young Americans for Liberty is a libertarian and conservative youth organization headquartered in Arlington, Va., according to the organization. There are more than 570 chapters nationwide. Chapters often set up free speech walls, said Deirdre Hackleman, spokeswoman for the national office.

Tory N. Parrish is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-5662 or tparrish@tribweb.com.

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Free speech wall rises at Carlow University

Kirsten Powers writes about politics, human rights and faith for USA Today and The Daily Beast. Chris Zarconi/Intelligence Squared U.S. hide caption

Kirsten Powers writes about politics, human rights and faith for USA Today and The Daily Beast.

There is agreement on both the political left and right that a majority of college professors in the United States are liberal or left-of-center. But do liberals stifle free speech particularly that of political and social conservatives on college campuses?

Social conservatives often argue that campuses, as a whole, are generally hostile to views that don't conform to the social and political left. Conservatives and evangelicals are rarely asked to speak at colleges and universities, they argue. And they point to numerous incidents where, when schools have asked conservatives to speak, those invitations have been revoked after clamor from left-leaning students and faculty.

But there are many who disagree with the premise that liberals quash intellectual diversity on college campuses. They argue that criticism is not censorship, but that conservatives too often label it as such. And when speech has been curtailed at colleges, they say, it's far more often by administrators seeking to quell or ward off campus disruption than by left-leaning students and faculty.

In the latest event from Intelligence Squared U.S., two teams faced off on in an Oxford-style debate on the motion, "Liberals Are Stifling Intellectual Diversity On Campus." In these events, the team that sways the most people by the end of the debate is declared the winner.

Before the debate at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., 33 percent of the audience voted in favor of the motion, 21 percent were opposed and 46 percent were undecided. After the debate, 59 percent agreed with the motion, while 32 percent disagreed, making the team arguing in favor of the motion the winner.

FOR THE MOTION

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), is the author of Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate and Freedom from Speech. He has published articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Stanford Technology Law Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education and numerous other publications. He is also a blogger for Huffington Post and authored a chapter in the anthology New Threats to Freedom. Lukianoff is a frequent guest on local and national syndicated radio programs, has represented FIRE on national television and has testified before the U.S. Senate about free speech issues on America's campuses. He is a co-author of FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus.

Angus Johnston (left), founder of StudentActivism.net, and Jeremy Mayer, a professor at George Mason University, argue against the motion, "Liberals Are Stifling Intellectual Diversity On Campus." Chris Zarconi/Intelligence Squared U.S. hide caption

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Debate: Do Liberals Stifle Intellectual Diversity On The College Campus?

A student group at Carlow University recently erected on campus a large outdoor poster-board, and on its otherwise blank surface, invited passersby to answer a question posed in blue marker: What is free speech?

For 10 days now, answers have been filling up the board, both weighty and whimsical, as students and others stop long enough to get whatever is on their mind off their chest and onto what the group has dubbed Free Speech Wall.

Thoughts on politics and religion, pointed observations about education and police, as well as expressions of personal sorrow and affirmation have appeared. The comments are helping the group, a campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty, promote a dialogue on campus about the dimensions of free expression.

America should give up racism for lent, read one. Learning to love myself each day. You should too. stated another. Words might cost me my freedom, but they will never cost me my soul or my dignity, read yet another.

And then there was this:Can we have two-ply toilet paper?

The newly formed group approached school administrators with the idea, saying the project fit with the Catholic universitys mission to pursue truth in learning and to respect others, said Richard Haynes, 30, a senior history major from Smithton. The school agreed.

Two connected eight-foot-by-four-foot poster-boards attached to plywood went up in Carlows Hospitality Garden, next to Frances Warde Hall.The board is to come down at the end of today, and messages from it will be used to help organize a teach-in on campus.

Mr. Haynes said the anonymous messages on the board left up round the clock were largely upbeat and respectful. He said organizers removed nothing, but pointing to faded marker on some messages, he added, The weather seems to have taken some things down.

Drew Wilson, a Carlow spokesman, said administrators saw merit to the idea. Besides, he added, the feelings would exist on campus even if the wall was not there.

One student took the opportunity to say, Athiests have morals too.Another invoked recent police brutality protests with the words Hands up. Dont shoot. Still others tackled sexual and gender identify.

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Carlow University 'wall' encourages free speech