Nick in the AM: National free-speech tempest hits Galesburg college – Peoria Journal Star

Nick Vlahos Journal Star reporter @vlahosnick

Good morning, troops. It's Thursday, Aug. 3.

As another academic year looms across America, did you realize Carl Sandburg College and its hometown of Galesburg have turned into Yale University and Berkeley, Calif.? At least as far as threats to free speech on campus are concerned?

That's what some national right-wing media would have us believe.

Sandburg, a junior college that includes a branch campus in Carthage, received attention recently from Campus Reform. It's a website that considers itself a watchdog that exposes bias and abuse on college campuses.

A Campus Reform story posted July 19 stated Sandburg students could be subject to disciplinary proceedings for using offensive language or "hate speech." Campus Reform linked to a page that no longer can be found on the Sandburg website. Apparently, the webpage listed the school code of conduct.

(Sandburg provided this link to the school's disciplinary and due process procedure.)

Campus Reform quoted a representative from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education as saying Sandburg could be subject to a lawsuit if it enforces this policy.

Last week, another article about the Sandburg code appeared at National Review Online, a mainstream conservative website. That article cited the Campus Reform piece and also quoted Sandburg spokesman Aaron Frey, a Bradley University graduate.

The National Review author, Katherine Timpf, chastised Frey and stated the policy is about giving administrators broader power to control the speech of students. That could include ideological limits.

Nick in the Morning decided to get to the bottom of this by asking a Sandburg representative for comment. Late last week, the college provided a statement. Here it is, in full:

"Carl Sandburg College students are free to engage in any type of speech protected under the Constitution. Our policy reflects and fully supports this idea. The college is in no way interested in pursuing discipline against or penalizing those who lawfully exercise their right to free speech.

"We encourage free speech and the exchange of ideas, but we also need to be mindful of the rights of those who seek an education in a welcoming, healthy environment. That's where our policy draws the line. When speech potentially threatens or endangers the health and safety of others on our campuses, we are obligated to look into that kind of activity.

"The conversation at campuses nationwide is where the line between free speech and speech that creates a harmful educational environment is drawn. We welcome that conversation and hope it, too, can be honest, productive, inclusive and civil."

To us, that sounds more like a "Don't be a jerk" policy than a "Students have every right to silence someone with whom they don't concur" policy.

Of all places, college campuses should be havens for open expression of ideas. All ideas. Even ideas with which the majority of students might disagree or even find offensive.

In that process, students should not be subject to abuse, threats and intimidation. Then again, what constitutes abuse, threats and intimidation can be in the eye of the beholder.

Freedom of speech on campus has become a big issue recently. Some colleges and universities have disinvited or restricted guest speakers, usually from the right side of the political spectrum, because of student outcries.

Nick in the Morning isn't sure a junior college based in a smallish, fairly ordinary Midwestern city should be Ground Zero for the latest free-speech skirmish. If there have been massive protests recently at Sandburg, or if students there have been harassed to the point of intervention by higher powers, we and Galesburg media must have missed them.

Perhaps Campus Reform and National Review Online can dial down the outrage they direct toward Sandburg and save it for situations that really require it. In other words, heed the song heard on the way to work.

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Nick in the AM: National free-speech tempest hits Galesburg college - Peoria Journal Star