Speech Codes

Colleges and universities routinely punish students and faculty for their speech, writings, and membership in campus groups. Administrators create and enforce speech codes in an attempt to outlaw free speech and free expression that do not conform to various new campus orthodoxies. For example, in recent years, the following speech codes (some later modified after public exposure) have existed on America’s campuses: what is more important in an academic community, an atmosphere in which anyone feels free to express any opinion or one in which no one feels persecuted or insulted? This dilemma has arisen as many colleges and universities have adopted speech codes, regulations that prohibit speech or other conduct that is abusive, threatening, or demeaning toward women, racial or ethnic minorities, or in some cases other groups as well. At the University of Pennsylvania, for example, a student had to appear before a disciplinary committee after using the term "water buffaloes" when shouting at several African-American women who were making noise on the street below his dorm room. At Oberlin College two Asian students brought charges against the editors of a campus humor magazine who had written a parody about Chinese food. Although both of these cases were subsequently dismissed, they illustrate the need for a clarification of what kind of speech is acceptable on a college campus and what kind, if any, is not.