Marathon Pundit: Tufts University conservative group latest victim of campus tyranny

Once again, FIRE is at the forefront of protecting free speech on campus. The latest victim of harassment is another college conservative group, Tufts University's The Primary Source.

From a FIRE press release:

Showing profound disregard for free speech and freedom of the press, Tufts University has found a conservative student publication guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment for publishing political satire. Despite explicitly promising to protect controversial and offensive expression in its policies, the Tufts Committee on Student Life decided yesterday to punish the student publication The Primary Source (TPS) for printing two articles that offended African-American and Muslim students on campus. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has spearheaded the defense of TPS, is now launching a public campaign to oppose Tufts' outrageous actions.

"We now know that Tufts' promises of free expression are hollow," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "By punishing political expression—the type of expression at the very core of the right to free speech—Tufts has shown that, in spite of its promises, it has no regard for its students' fundamental rights. Such hypocrisy must not go unchallenged."

Last December, TPS published a satirical Christmas carol entitled "Oh Come All Ye Black Folk." Although TPS runs a Christmas carol parody every year, December's carol sparked controversy on campus because it harshly lampooned race-based admissions. Realizing that the carol offended large portions of the Tufts community, TPS published an apology on December 6, 2006. Four months later, however" and created a "hostile environment." Other students filed similar charges in response to TPS' April 11, 2007 piece entitled "Islam—Arabic Translation: Submission," a satirical advertisement that ridiculed Tufts' "Islamic Awareness Week" by highlighting militant Islamic terrorism.