My colleague Charlotte Allen has blogged on the University of Chicago's courageous stand on trigger warnings: there won't be any and freedom of speech will be upheld.
Now another institution is taking a more limited stand on free speech: a public college in Louisiana is standing up for free speech–but only for two hours a week, and only at designated locations.
A public university in Louisiana has a speech code that permits students to express their beliefs freely for two hours per week at three predetermined locations.
The Northwestern State University policy requires students to apply 24-48 hours in advance before holding a public demonstration or assembly, and limits such activities to “one, 2-hour time period every 7 days, commencing on Monday.”
Public demonstrations are limited to three locations on campus: the Student Union Plaza, Prather Coliseum East Parking Lot and a so-called “Green Space between CAPA and Varnado Hall.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education dubbed the Northwestern State policy its “Speech Code of the Month.”
Stephen Kruiser of PJ Media comments:
Once places that young people went to be exposed to new ideas, many American universities are now almost Soviet in their approach to free thought and speech. From "safe spaces" to arbitrary and punitive "bias response teams," campus life has become more about onerous speech control than anything resembling freedom.
Maybe somebody needs to read the Bill of Rights–aloud
It takes less than two hours to do so.