Marathon Pundit: Ill. legislature passes College Campus Press Act

The Illinois State Legislature is in an overtime session, trying to pass a budget that now 2/3 of the legislature has to agree on.

On a positive note, last week the legislature passed the College Campus Press Act.

From the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) web site:

The Chicago Tribune reported (registration required) yesterday that the Illinois State Legislature has passed the College Campus Press Act, a bill that the Tribune reported "would allow college student journalists to write articles without fear that college officials could censor or bar publication of their work." State Senator Susan Garrett, sponsor of the bill, said, "It just made sense to me that college journalists should have the same types of opportunities to present their material as journalists in the professional media…They shouldn’t be subjected to prior review by public university administrations, because that really stifles free speech." The bill, which passed unanimously in the Illinois Senate and 112-2 in the House, now awaits only Governor Rod Blagojevich’s signature in order to become state law.

The bill came in the wake of the Hosty v. Carter decision, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that a dean of students who exercised prior restraint over a student newspaper—unequivocally because of its viewpoint—was entitled to immunity from liability. Read FIRE’s amicus brief to the Seventh Circuit here.

If administrators are going to continue taking hugely unpopular steps to trample upon students’ rights and if judges are going to let them, then the people and their representatives are going to take action. It is always amazing how college administrators and many legal minds are willing to make excuses for censorship when the common sense of the public is so firmly against it, as shown by this overwhelming vote to guarantee student press freedom. Administrators take note—the Illinois bill is not the first of its kind, and it will likely not be the last.

Here's an excerpt from the Tribune article:

The act was prompted in part by a case involving student journalists at Governors State University in University Park. Three GSU students sued the university in June 2001 when a dean blocked the student paper from being printed after several stories critical of the university administration were published.

Patricia Carter, then dean of student affairs, told the printing company not to print the student paper, The Innovator, before she reviewed and approved it, according to court documents. That paper hasn't been published since and was replaced by a new student paper, The Phoenix.

Sadly, this is the state of 21st century academia.

More from the Tribune:

In February 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the former student journalists, Margaret Hosty, Jeni Porche and Steven Barba. The court let stand a lower court ruling that found Carter should not be held liable for her decision because the case law involving student publications was murky enough that she couldn't be expected to know what was legally permissible.

FIRE was deeply involved in the Governors State Case, as it is in many free speech situations on college campuses

In April FIRE produced a free video podcast, which is available from the iTunes web site. It's part of the Voices of Vision series--the April 23 entry.

The podcast focused on two situations where clearly students' free speech rights were violated, one at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the other at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

FIRE co-founder Alan Charles Kors is interviewed, and he decries that state of contemporary academia, dominated 1960s activists, which has made going to college a "coercive four year re-education."

Of course FIRE also looks after the free speech rights of faculty, most notably of late is the Thomas Klocek affair at DePaul University.

Thanks for the link:

Freedom of Speech Blogs

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