Free Republic

The Alliance Defense Fund, students of Georgia Tech and free speech won a substantial victory in court this week. On Monday, August 14 a court order went into effect that requires Georgia Tech to repeal and replace a speech code which the ADF said is unconstitutional. The order also prohibits the school from changing the code again for a period of five years unless pre-approved by the court. “The First Amendment applies to all students on campus, including religious students and students who hold conservative political beliefs. We are glad that we reached a mutually agreeable settlement with the university...

Early this month, the incomparable Ruth Malhotra and I debated the state of academic freedom with two professors from American University in a forum on campus. It’s interesting that the debate organizers could find two liberals in their own backyard but had to go off campus to line up two conservatives. Ruth, our readers may remember, is the Georgia Tech senior given a failing grade by her professor for attending the Conservative Political Action Conference two years ago. The two professors—John Watson and John Doolittle—were civil enough but, I must confess, I had a much more pleasant encounter with the...

The movement for academic freedom has been spurred on by students who have seen bias in the classroom or experienced political discrimination, stood up against it and become activists for their cause. A handful of these students were in Washington, D.C. to publicly share their stories at the recent Academic Freedom Conference held by Students for Academic Freedom on April 6-7. Student Mason Harrison, of University of California-Davis, encountered a political rant on the first day of a women’s studies class he’d enrolled in on a wager. “My professor began the class, not by introducing herself, but by chanting: ‘No...

Ruth Malhotra’s involvement in the College Republicans attracted attention from Georgia Tech where she is an International Relations and Public Policy major, when the CRs held a protest of The Vagina Monologues. The students had a sign with quotes from the Eve Ensler play [being shown on campus], and were ordered to white-out some of the quotes by university officials. When the CRs attempted to hold a diversity bake sale to call attention to Georgia Tech’s affirmative action policies they were shut down by campus police. Malhotra offered these recollections while speaking on a panel with other dissident students at...