Posted on 01/05/2020 8:57:31 AM PST by Kaslin
With just one month left before the Iowa Caucus, Iowa State University is stifling students’ First Amendment rights by prohibiting them from using email to communicate about campaigns and ballot issues. Students are also limited from “chalking,” a tradition of drawing both political and apolitical messages on the sidewalk with chalk.
University officials approved an interim policy that restricts chalking on Iowa State’s campus to registered student organizations publicizing upcoming events open to all students. This limits thousands of students from participating in chalking.
Speech First, a non-profit advocating for First Amendment rights, filed a lawsuit challenging Iowa State University for their anti-free speech policies.
“The state of Iowa is a major destination for presidential candidates, who are on or near campus on a regular basis,” said Speech First president Nicole Neily. “Many students learn about meet-and-greet events because events have traditionally been promoted through chalking – and by banning these advertisements and emails, students are missing out on major civic participation opportunities.”
Iowa State University’s President Wendy Wintersteen issued a statement highlighting the institution’s commitment to First Amendment and other constitutional values. However, the statement made clear the university will limit what it decides is “hate speech.” No word on what the criteria for “hate speech” will be. It has sometimes been used to smear basic conservative ideas like slimming the United States’ world-leading welfare state.
Unfortunately, our campus has also experienced bigoted, hateful, racist, and anti-Semitic messaging that, while protected by the First Amendment, is also hurtful and harmful to many students.
Iowa State University also takes seriously its obligation mandated by federal law to create and maintain a campus that is free from illegal discrimination and harassment. Iowa State University will continue to champion the First Amendment in our efforts to create a campus where all individuals and ideas are welcome and included.
Hindering free speech is no new phenomena on college campuses, even at state universities that are technically bound to honor students’ free speech rights because such universities are extensions of government. In fact, Speech First has filed similar lawsuits all across the country, including against the University of Texas, University of Illinois, and University of Michigan. This case is particularly concerning because it is stifling speech among a voting bloc in a key swing state.
In two separate Emerson polls, data indicates the plurality of Iowan voters consider themselves moderate, particularly, a plurality of young people aged 18-29 identify as moderate. In the first Emerson poll, 30.4 percent of Iowans considered themselves “moderate,” with the next closest group identifying themselves as “somewhat conservative” at 24.2 percent. In the second Emerson poll, the plurality of Iowans aged 18-29, 49.6 percent, identified as “Independent.” Based on this data, it’s fair to presume young Iowans are open to a broad array of information to determine how they will vote in the upcoming election.
Anti-First Amendment policies, such as the ones implemented at Iowa State University, will hinder students from sharing political ideas with their peers. This is leftist intolerance trying to influence a national election by thwarting young Iowans from receiving all the information available to them on their college campuses.
Only if it supports Trump.
“Orange Man Bad!” is perfectly okiley-dokiley.
Chalking the sidewalk seems rather juvenile.
Iowa must revoke their charter immediately and shut the school down.
This is no longer a bastion of education and research but an indoctrination center/adult day care.
Memo to college students from administration:
Your alleged freedom of speech is no more valid than your supposed gun rights.
We are still a gun free zone and now a speech restricted zone.
The Constitution is what we college administrators rule it to be.
You have been warned.
Highly educated university leadership but no common sense or knowledge. An enterprising student could jump on board this free speech infringement lawsuit and pick up some cash for a nice spring break trip.
perfect situation for the Trump administration to step in IF they’re serious about their campus free speech executive order issued in March of 2019:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/5777254/Executive-Order-Free-Speech.pdf
If this University takes federal grant funds, it can be sued for the violation of 1st amendment protected right of free speech.
Censorship at its tyrannical best? And the lock step indoctrinated, little leftists student body will accept it.
This’ll be shot down by the end of the week (if not sooner).
I typed ‘shot down’ .. the HORROR !
I’m always amazed how liberals manage to eliminate our constitutional rights on government property.
This is no longer a bastion of education and research but an indoctrination center/adult day care.
*************
As are many so-called universities that perpetuate and enable juvenile behavior.
Your words are clearly insensitive and incendiary. ;)
> Only if it supports Trump. <
Some conservative group ought to do a test. Have someone email a few pro-Trump comments. Have someone else email a few anti-Trump comments. Then see what happens.
I’m betting that those emails won’t be treated the same way.
though crushed by my occasional troglodyteness, life goes on and I'll just have to learn to live with it.
Wait. What is stopping one student from sending an email to another student via their cell phones? The school has zero day on this.
Zero “say”, idiot.
Raze it to the ground.
Is the university paying for the email account? Even a university administration would not be dumb enough to try to censor messages from student-owned computers and email accounts, even if they used university wifi.
Iowa State University, as you sign in and become a student...you get a university email address (like Joey.Jones@IowaState.x).
You get file storage space, data sharing capability (like Googles deal), a calendar, etc. So what they are hinting at...that university system will not turn into some massive political tool. If you want to use your own personal account, to send email to like-minded students who have a Yahoo or Google email address....you can still do that.
It would be the same way at a company which provides email addresses, and they mandate no religious emails, NCAA football emails, or political stuff.
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