Recently in class we have been discussing speech codes and their place in universities. One of the activites we completed to explore this issue was visiting FIRE's website. FIRE states their mission is to protect students' freedom of speech and prevent university speech codes from infringing up their First Amendment rights. However, I believe that FIRE is more than slightly overzealous in their mission. While the organization seems to have good intentions, it is necessary that FIRE recognize the dual importance of both tolerance and civility along with the freedom of expression. While I understand how this organization views certain speech codes as restrictive--many are--they are nontheless there as a means to protect students from malicious and harmful behavior that would ultimately negatively impact the educational environment of a university.
I have had some difficulty coming to a clear conclusion on the legitimacy of these speech codes. Having already established that the intent of these codes is not to infringe upon students' rights or make a university a purely totalitarian environment devoid of personal freedoms, the flipside of this issue needs to be addressed as well.
In class we also explored the issue of students at various universities holding "Jim Crow parties" and holding various other racist parties. Although I would personally would wish to see anyone who engages in such tasteless behavior as holding "Jim Crow parties" or insinuating lynchings be severly punished, one must view this issue through an objective lens. Just as one would have to, unfortunately, tolerate a Ku Klux Klan rally in the 'real world', students ought to be afforded the these same rights of self-expression while in college, independent of how offensive they may be to certain individuals.
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