Last Friday’s College Republican-hosted affirmative action bake sale elicited charged responses from students and university faculty alike, including a letter written by Professor James Johnson that was signed by 34 faculty members condemning the event in uncouched terms and demanding censure and punitive action from the university. In return, President Thomas Jackson defended the students’ right to symbolic speech, which is protected by the First Amendment. Indeed, we feel that any punitive action taken by the university against the College Republicans would effectively suppress the free expression of speech.As a newspaper, traditionally a public arena for open debate, it is our duty to strongly support the strict protection of First Amendment rights. Whatever anyone’s position may be on affirmative action or specifically on the bake sale itself, it was the undeniable right of the College Republicans’ to express that opinion. Responses to the event should call for additional debate and discussion, not for silence. We should invite more speech, not demand less.It is not only the obligation of a newspaper but that of a university as well to foster tolerance of diverse viewpoints. If there is one place in which opinions should be able to be freely expressed, it is within the university community. We support Jackson’s defending the action itself without his necessarily endorsing the message it promoted.Issues should be addressed, not buried. Affirmative action is being debated on campuses all over the country and this particular event was not itself unprecedented. In an environment that encourages learning, discussion, and open-mindedness to different beliefs, charged issues should be afforded the free expression and open debate they deserve rather than the unfair silencing of a viewpoint which cannot be ignored. Freedom to speak, especially to speak unpopular ideas, is so fundamental of a freedom, that whenever it is called into question, we must all as a tolerant, open-minded community come to its defense.
Campus Times
Of free speech
As per tradition, “The State of the Campus Times” updates readers on our affairs — the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) and Publisher write this pseudo-column at the start and end of every semester to articulate the struggles and joys found through managing your local student-run newspaper. We also introduce ourselves and our projects, what we hope to achieve during our terms, and we provide progress updates regarding past management’s pursuits. Read More
medication
Of free speech
As recently as the early 2010s, it was standard practice for surgeons to provide 30 to 40 or more opioid pills for common, minimally invasive procedures. Most of these pills, however, would remain untouched, left over in the patient’s medical cabinet or kitchen pantries for potential misuse. A team of researchers led by URMC’s Dr. Jacob Moalem set out to reduce these opioid overprescriptions. Read More
campus brat
Of free speech
The first realization of my own age hit me in the months before I started college. I was helping my dad clean the small office he’d occupied in Rush Rhees longer than I’d been alive. The walls of which boasted childhood drawings that my sister and I had crayoned. Even though I was looking at my distant past, I realized I would soon be starting a new page of my future. Read More