A Crackdown on Free Speech at … Bucknell University?
University administrators clamp down on — who else — campus conservatives.
Bucknell University, a well-regarded liberal arts institution set in a picturesque location in the rolling Pennsylvania countryside, looks entirely benign. Its campus is safe, its students intelligent. It counts among its alumni the famed author Philip Roth and Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS. It’s a college to which most parents would be proud to send their kids.
But if your son or daughter is the type who might join the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC), you would be well-advised to send him or her somewhere else. Because Bucknell really, really does not want to hear what the students of the BUCC have to say.
The BUCC has never exactly been welcome at Bucknell, and as the movie Indoctrinate U shows (directed by a Bucknell alum), the university is hardly a stranger to free speech controversies. The college’s latest assault on the free expression of its students began in March, when the students of the BUCC earned the administration’s ire by passing out satirical “Obama Stimulus Dollars” — fake dollar bills with President Obama’s face on the front and the sentence “Obama’s stimulus plan makes your money as worthless as monopoly money” on the back. Only an hour of this apparently unacceptable behavior was tolerated before administrators “busted” them for “solicitation” without prior approval. A look at Bucknell’s “solicitation” policy quickly reveals that, unsurprisingly, for something to be solicitation it must be trying to sell you something, but that didn’t stop Bucknell from illegitimately using the policy to shut down the BUCC’s protest.
Only a couple of weeks later, the BUCC was back with more pesky activism, this time in the form of a satirical “affirmative action bake sale” protest. Affirmative action bake sales are a common form of college protest in which organizers put together a mock “bake sale” complete with a sign that advertises baked goods for different prices depending on the race of the buyer. Whites and Asians pay more than blacks and Hispanics for the same items. Protest organizers use the sales to spark debate over affirmative action policies. They are not a moneymaking venture, and, in fact, the bake sale protest idea is not new — affirmative action bake sales are based on earlier “gender gap” or “pay equity” bake sales, which intended to demonstrate the difference in pay between men and women by charging men less than women for the same baked goods.
As the BUCC conducted this protest on April 7, they once more had about an hour before an administrator showed up to shut the students down. Captured on video, Associate Dean Gerald Commerford actually told the students that Bucknell had the “opportunity” to shut down the sale. The pretext? The students were charging less for donuts than they said they would on their event permit. When the students offered to immediately raise their prices to match those on the permit, Commerford refused. After all, why miss such a good “opportunity” to shut down debate and dissent on campus? Commerford assured them, though, that they could reapply for a permit and have the sale again sometime down the road.
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Robert Shibley is the vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) in Philadelphia, PA.
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29 Comments
1. m dog:pajamas media owns!
Jun 27, 2009 - 3:16 am 2. "progressive"watch:Obama dollars and affirmitive action bake sales are good freedom of expression ideas,and the Obama dollar idea of them becoming worth the same as monopoly money is probably prophetic. The movie Indoctrinate U shows American character and spirit and typical reaction to acts of tyranny large and small. The Bucknell adminstration will find that the conservative students will evolve into all they can handle. To the students: “I have just begun to fight!”
Exposing Bucknell,Bradeis,Johns Hopkins,Michigan State and others with their tyranical,hypocritical,and politically correct pants down is the first step in fighting their unacademic and self-destructive behavior to its death.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:38 am 3. james:Marxist tyrants shutting down dissent. What a concept. Who knew?
Jun 27, 2009 - 6:40 am 4. Betsy:Mama is a Bucknell alum so I forwarded this to her. She voiced her unhappiness to the administration but I’m not sure they’ll be overly concerned about a 90-year-old alumnus’ opinion. But they should be.
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:20 am 5. Rich Vail:In our colleges and universities today, free speech is only permitted if it in support of marxism/socialism or not done by any conservative or libertarian. It’s well past time that we demand that all of our colleges and universities hire and promote ALL view points, not just those that they agree with.
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:24 am 6. Professor Guvinoff:Kudos to these brave students. The Campus may be the front line of the cultural wars, where the most powerful weapon has not been deployed, yet: What if the parents woke up to the futility of paying these huge tuitions?
One of the Universities in Boston (I forgot which one) used to run an ad that said “If you think education is expensive, look at the cost of ignorance!”. Is that argument still valid? Why pay so dearly to have your children turned into soldiers of the systematic campaign of destruction of the judeo-christian values?
In reality the best educated youth of today are our real soldiers. When they return from the real wars and enter the civilian work force, they will know courage (and cowardice) when they see it. As has happened before, the former military men and women will become the industry and business leaders, and some day, may even rescue the universities from their current state of rot.
Our universities and colleges today are demoralized, in the fundamental sense of the word: They profess the obsolescence of morality. And why are they so successful? Simply because the way down has always been the easy way, and always will be. The BUUC students have understood this, and they pay the price, all the power to them, because they are fighting their war, too, and what they are learning by doing so will in the end be more precious that what their pompous professors can ever hope to contribute!
I don’t have a college degree, and I’m doing OK, thank you.
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:38 am 7. Cindy Sue Causey:What m dog said..!
)
PS.. A timed tweet is fixin’ to toss you out into the #TCOT stream soon..
Jun 27, 2009 - 8:45 am 8. David Thomson:“What if the parents woke up to the futility of paying these huge tuitions?”
On a gut level, most parents don’t really give a damn. Few students attend college to actually get an education. Maybe one in a thousand. They do so primarily to obtain a credential which will help them acquire a good paying job. The parents will remain indifferent until more employers say the diploma isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Unfortunately, the awful 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision Griggs vs. Duke Power also hinders any meaningful reform.
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:01 am 9. Joe Bison:Leftists at all levels are pro-free speech
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:28 am 10. Brian:as long as what is said agrees with the
doctrine of the comrade-in-charge.
When following a hollow duplicitous philosophy
what else is a leftist supposed to do?
Nothing new or suprising in this. I know I had more then a few professors who used the class as a opportunity to spout out their own social beliefs which had nothing to do with the course material, then shut down any opposing view points.
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:32 am 11. hangnail:Bucknell is a commie sinkhole! What would expect from that nest of a**holes,fairness?
Jun 27, 2009 - 10:13 am 12. Professor Guvinoff:@ David Thomson, #8,
Agreed. Getting an education and getting a pedigree are two different things. If the overwhelming majority of students go to college to come out looking good and feeling smart instead of actually learning something of value, they have already surrendered their pride and self-respect to the gate keepers of political correctness, and any other forms of oppression behind that.
In that case squandering years of tuition and associated costs is not such a big deal, proportionally.
Jun 27, 2009 - 11:18 am 13. Bob:I would like to throw Dean Commerford into a 4 by 8 cell and deprive him all of his free speech right to voice protest and lock him out of the world for one year, so he can be a taught a very humbling lesson about depriving someone else’s right to free speech, like the BUCC. My suggestive approach may seem extreme to you but it could work and it could certainly teach liberal idiots like Commerford some lessons about the right to free speech. In China, it’s pretty difficult to criticize the Chinese gov’t and hopefully not get some pounding knocks on the door by the local authorities.
Jun 27, 2009 - 11:46 am 14. David Thomson:“In that case squandering years of tuition and associated costs is not such a big deal, proportionally.”
Most people have no idea what I’m talking about regarding Griggs vs. Duke Power. And yet, this single decision effectively mandated credentialism. On a practical basis, it forced people to minimally obtain a bachelor’s degree. The days when the college graduates had to compete with those self-educated were more often than not over. Bill Gates, for instance, could lead Microsoft because he was one of its founders. There is virtually no way in hell that a college dropout could raise within the ranks because of Griggs vs. Duke Power. Things are not going to improve in academia until citizens can earn a law degree and other credentials without having to sit in a classroom. The universities must be compelled to compete!
The Republican Party blew a golden opportunity when it looked the other way when Griggs vs. Duke Power was decided. This was due to the fact that Richard Nixon was president and had no interest whatsoever in combating the forces of political correctness. He was a total wimp when it came to matters indirectly dealing with race.
Jun 27, 2009 - 12:02 pm 15. afsb:I had hoped that “Indoctrinate U” would have embarrassed them enough to quit this, or at least be less blatant about it. I stopped sending the alumni fund any $ a while back, and I haven’t seen anything so far that changes my mind. I wonder who’s teaching their course on Constitution these days.
Jun 27, 2009 - 12:20 pm 16. Marc Malone:The amswer is a good butt-whuppin’. The oppressed should don masks amd put a beatdown on the Dean with a warning to back off. It’s the only thing such petty tyrants understand. They only do these things, because they feel confident of their power. They hide behind the power of the system. There’s no risk to their personal hide. A good old schoolyard asswhuppin’ would stop this nonsense dead in its tracks. Make it PERSONAL!
Jun 27, 2009 - 12:45 pm 17. michiganruth:I once attended a meeting about campus diversity at my university. Someone in the audience asked a Housing director if her “conservative Republican” nephew would be accepted if he applied. the response was: “Sure. At Michigan, we even let jerks in!” I kid you not.
the audience–mostly composed of mid-level college administrators and academics–actually applauded.
we all know what universities mean by “diversity”–and it ain’t about diversity of opinion.
Jun 27, 2009 - 5:52 pm 18. Gozer the Carpathian:I enjoyed Indoctrinate U, it was an interesting film that I pretty much couldn’t disagree with. I also agree the whole degree for a job thing is total BS.
I currently work for NASA at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications complex. According to the rules you need to have a BS to work in my current job or equal military experience. Yet the job itself doesn’t require anywhere near that much experience, but the pay rate and such requires folks have those.
I’m living proof you don’t need those since I don’t have em.
Jun 27, 2009 - 9:15 pm 19. Marc Malone:Gozer not going into space. Gozer talking to space. Trying to find the rest of his race.
Jun 28, 2009 - 1:06 am 20. karlstro1:The more you read stories like this the more it seems the left are repeating history along the lines of Nazi Germany. All Americans must stand up and fight leadership that imposes silence on open debate and dissent! This is NOT what America stands for!
Jun 28, 2009 - 9:12 am 21. Rubicon:Another means of fighting back against such discriminatory policies, is to educate kids on our university systems & that there are alternatives available to them. They may not have the ‘prestige’ of a Bucknell or a Johns Hopkins or a Boston College, etc., BUT, they do have quality educational environments where students learn rather than just obtain a pedigree document to ‘get in’ the corporate system.
Jun 28, 2009 - 11:38 am 22. Oscar the Grump:How about mentioning schools like Hillsdale College in Michigan? Its a conservative college that actually teaches ‘the Constitution.’
The truth is, if we really look at many of the universities or colleges available to our kids, the costs associated with attending them are totally out of proportion. The tuition & other fees to attend even Penn State, are outrageous.
Unfortunately many of our kids decide to go to specific schools due to the ‘party’ rating or the ‘male v. female’ ratio’s ratings. Some want specific course offerings, yet once they get there they find out the composition of the course offerings for their selective major simply do not meet or live up to the brochure expectations. Great advertising is how we get politicians who sell the public warm & fuzzy feelings while delivering oppression wrapped up as “fairness & equality.”
Its up to us adults to try to steer kids toward those institutions that actually are teaching based on being an American & not based on being an internationalist globalist Marxist, as part of the collective of redistribution.
This is a great article. I’m surprised that there isn’t more comment on this attack on freedom of speech. We exercise it here on PJM. Why is everyone turning a blind eye?
Jun 28, 2009 - 11:14 pm 23. Anonymous:They probably should have let them go on with their bake sale – It would have been far more effective for every student to see what self centerd morons they are
Jun 29, 2009 - 5:20 am 24. Jvan Mi:This comment was posted in a diffferent article but defines a response to the loss of rights.
Whether there are regulations on the books or not, anyone enforcing regulations that in effect deprive a citizen of his rights is guilty of Deprivation of Civil Rights Under Color of Law. A charge that seldom goes unpunished when it is targeted at someone who, for instance, refuses to permit a citizen to sacrifice a chicken in his prison cell. What the hell is wrong with the so-called conservatives that they haven’t learned to fight fire with fire and continuously bring suit against every little tin Gawd that enforces rules that infringe individual rights? Is there some form of mania that infects them and makes them think that what’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander if it entails using the system against those who do the same to them?
Regulating a right out of existence has been fought successfully a large number of times. If gun right, speech rights, or any other rights are regulated out of existence, “Sue the Bastards”, is the way to go and it works. Trying to blame “them” when “we” don’t even put up a fight makes no sense at all. Look in the damn mirror at one of the people who won’t put their money where their mouth is and support lawsuits out the ears against every one of the little games these numbskulls play.
Have a nice day
Jun 29, 2009 - 6:28 pm 25. Camo:#24 Jvan Mi
Jun 30, 2009 - 5:42 am 26. afsb:I second that motion. A protest without following up is just an exercise in futility.
The best follow-up available at this time is FIRE, bless’em, and BUCC did go to them and FIRE is on the case.
Jun 30, 2009 - 8:52 am 27. West:“College students — among them our future leaders — are being taught that freedom is to be distrusted, that authority may be arbitrary instead of lawful, and that some ideas are just too dangerous to express.”
Seems to me that the students are being well prepared for entry into the real world!
Jun 30, 2009 - 11:03 am 28. John the Baptist:Bucknell will not be receiving my brilliant grandson’s application for admission now. I know because I am paying his tuition.
Jun 30, 2009 - 11:54 am 29. Listen up:Go ahead and clamp down on conservative students…the more they clamp, the more students will join the conservative movement. Example: Iran! Conservatives are the new black! Got it?!
Jun 30, 2009 - 3:37 pm