Flagler College Retroactively Approved Free Speech Event after the Event was supposed to be held – Accuracy in Academia

April 12, 2017, Spencer Irvine, Leave a comment

Per FIRE, Flagler College approved a students free speech ball days after the event was supposed to take place:

AUGUSTINE, Fla., April 4, 2017 Flagler College has retroactively granted permission to a student to exercise her expressive rights with a free speech ball event but only days after the event occurred, and only after initially prohibiting her from hosting it at all. Flaglers decision followed a letter last Friday from FIRE warning the school to uphold the students rights.

Last Thursday, Flagler administrators told student Kelli Huck that she would not be allowed to host the free speech event she had planned for that Friday because the event was not sponsored by a recognized student group despite the fact she had twice attempted to form a Young Americans for Liberty chapter on campus. The Student Government Association denied both of her applications for official student group recognition because members perceived the prospective organization as trending towards one certain political agenda. FIRE wrote to Flagler earlier in March, urging the administration to overturn the student governments viewpoint-discriminatory decisions, and is still awaiting a response.

We are glad that Flagler College ultimately vindicated Kellis expressive right to hold a free speech ball event, but the university should never have placed her in the position of having to risk disciplinary action in order to engage in free expression, said Ari Cohn, director of FIREs Individual Rights Defense Program. The idea that only members of student groups and not individuals have a voice on Flaglers campus is deeply troubling and runs counter to the ideals that Flagler claims to value.

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Flagler College Retroactively Approved Free Speech Event after the Event was supposed to be held - Accuracy in Academia