And then they wonder why they get accused of liberal bias
Betsy's Page
Reading this story about how Johns Hopkins University has confiscated copies of The Carrollton Record, the only conservative newspaper on campus, because they published articles about Hopkins allowing and funding a pornographer to come speak on campus and give away free DVDs makes me feel that I've entered some sort of bizarro universe.
When I expressed my concerns with school officials, I was met with an absolute statement by Assistant Dean of Student Life Ralph Johnson, who said, "No matter how morally repugnant the speech may be, we have to allow it."
But when I wrote about how the school was paying for the pornography, that statement seemed to become "more of a guideline than a rule." Within one day, more than 1,800 copies of the controversial issue, more than 600 issues placed in the library and issues in the residence halls have disappeared entirely.
Since then the university has banned the newspaper from being distributed in its dorms. Apparently, criticizing the university is enough to constitute unallowable speech.
This all comes after the school unequivocally denied the TCR any funding whatsoever, as well as denied the College Republicans funding for Newt Gingrich to come to campus as well as a gun-safety course.
And as the hits just keep on rolling, news came our way today that the TCR is also forbidden from even advertising in the dormitories with a simple sheet of paper pointing students to our website.
This all-inclusive ban seemingly violates the university policy on free speech, which says that free speech must be protected with the exceptions of harassment, hate speech or threats. "Controversial" was not among the list of exceptions to freedom found in Hopkins' speech code.
As we clamor to find the remaining issues, and deal with a Hopkins bureaucracy that has accused us of harassment and banned us from distribution all the while paying for pornography for students and stealing copies of the TCR, we are sure to learn a valuable lesson: Education at Hopkins no longer involves simply the works of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith, but has been expanded to include the works of Debbie doing Dallas and Chi Chi doing Hopkins.
Fortunately, FIRE is on the case.
On May 14, approximately 600 copies of TCR that had been distributed to the library the previous day went missing. TCR editor Jered Ede attempted to report the theft, but told FIRE that a security officer and the Dean of Student Life both said that the missing papers did not constitute theft. Ede then learned that TCR would no longer be allowed to distribute in dorms and that administrators had confiscated 300 copies. Previously, TCR and numerous other publications—including the liberal Hopkins Donkey—had regularly been distributed in JHU dorms, some of which even have distribution racks expressly for this purpose.
TCR staffers contacted FIRE, which wrote in protest to JHU president William Brody on May 19. JHU counsel Frederick Savage defended JHU's actions by saying that student publications are subject to the posting policy, which demands that posters and fliers be approved by the Office of Residential Life before being posted in dorms. Savage wrote to FIRE, "Although it is not explicitly stated in the policy, by long standing practice the Office of Residential Life has applied the [posting] policy to student publications."
"This is a shocking and disturbing admission, if true," commented Lukianoff. "Not only would such a policy subject student newspapers to prior official review, but it appears to have been selectively enforced to silence unpopular opinions. By granting its officials the unfettered power to 'approve' newspapers, JHU is giving them the power to arbitrarily censor."
Savage's letter to FIRE also stated that since TCR "is free of charge and there is no limitation on the number of copies one can take, any charge of theft would be difficult to sustain." Newspaper theft, however, is a prevalent form of mob censorship, which should be anathema at any institution that values free speech. Furthermore, after a 1994 rash of newspaper thefts at colleges across Maryland —including JHU—the state passed a law making newspaper theft illegal.
Perhaps a little more correspondence with FIRE's legal staff will convince Johns Hopkins that they can't get away with making up ad hoc rules to apply only to a conservative publication.
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