Troy University comes under fire

Harvard graduate and former Vice President of Programs at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Adam Kissel will be addressing free speech Wednesday, Nov. 6.

This discussion will take place at 4 p.m. in Bibb Graves 129 and is hosted by Students for Liberty and the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy.

His speech, titled “Free Speech and Double Standards in Education,” will touch on the regulations placed on students in the college environment.

This isn’t the first time Troy University has come under FIRE’s scrutiny.

In 2005, a federal lawsuit was filed against the university for censoring a student’s artwork and maintaining “scandalous and unconstitutional speech codes on college campuses” (visit thefire.org for more information).

By FIRE standards, Troy University is considered to have a speech code reading of red, meaning that the university has at least one policy that seriously restricts student and faculty rights to freedom of speech.

“I think it’s incredibly important that students know about the restrictions placed on free speech in the college setting,” said Ana-Shea Fann, a senior economics major and Students for Liberty campus coordinator for the state of Alabama.

“The time a student spends in college should be a time in which they are free to exercise this right particularly, as it’s so important to the development of values and intellect.”

“The university has a ‘free speech zone,’” Fann said, “Why is the entire campus not a free speech zone? Why are we allowed free speech only in certain areas and certain situations? It is a right that students should be able to exercise fully without fear of reprisal. All too often, though, this is not the case nationwide.”

Students for Liberty meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Johnson Center Library and can be contacted through their Facebook group.