LAST FRIDAY, The Daily Progress reported that a group of students is "working with University Law professors and administrators to craft a change" that will "standardize" University Judiciary Committee sanctions against students found guilty of hate-motivated violations. This group (of four students) also wants to add a "13th tenet to the Standards of Conduct," specifically addressing verbal harassment. The recent spur of racial incidents has left our student body undeniably mired in a state of malaise. However, aggression against the First Amendment, no matter how subtle, is a misdirected and superficial response.
Historically, such campus speech codes have not faired well in court. In 1988, the University of Michigan faced several racial incidents, particularly the dispersion of a flyer that declared "open season" on blacks. In reaction, UM passed a policy which prohibited any speech which "creates an intimidating, hostile, or demeaning environment for educational pursuits, employment or participation in University sponsored
Read More
GARVIE: Let clubs be about interests, not interviews
By Adeline Garvie | 3 days agoThe Second-Year Council should not be alone in interrogating these systems, but rather, the University must earnestly recognize the stressors these processes mount on students.
TAYLOR: Charlottesville’s asylum seekers are trapped by a DHS legal loophole
By Nat Taylor | 3 days agoWith more immigrant constitutional rights being under fire from loopholes like automatic stay provisions, communities that take many asylum seekers like Charlottesville suffer.
BROWN AND FORD: U.Va.’s Board of Visitors cannot escape accountability with silence
By Ann Brown and Chris Ford | 4 days agoWhile the faculty, alumni, students and multiple university organizations call for accountability and demand the resignation of the Board’s leaders, the remaining members of the Board — 11 persons in all — remain silent, unmoved, perhaps inactive.
