Free speech on campus

A few weeks ago, a Texas lawmaker's bill that would protect student free speech at colleges reached the Higher Education Committee. Free speech on campus is a concept that my colleagues and I usually don't think about. We haven't felt threatened by the administration to censor ourselves at all, though we do have problems with access to information as we are a private university. It is kind of odd that states would have to push through legislation further protecting its citizens rights even though it's such a fundamental part of this nation. But if this bill become enacted, Texas will be the ninth state to have such a law.

This Student Press Law Center story mentions a few instances in Texas colleges, not necessarily private, of prior restraint and censorship. In one university, students were asked not to display political messages from their dorm windows. At another community college, prior restraint was protected in the student media policy.

At my university, TCU, I do recall an instance where a cop was called because a student was reading out loud from his Bible. The student was asked to stop because he didn't have a permit and his actions counted as "illegal assembly." How many people constitute an assembly? Can one person assemble alone? I also later found out that our camus has "free speech areas" where free speech is allowed. As a higher education institution, restricting free speech in anyway seems counterintuitive. So, maybe this bill was necessary after all.

Anyway, here's the link to the column the student wrote about his little social experiment.