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Bucknell University: University Slams Door on Student Satires of Obama Stimulus Plan and Affirmative Action

Student rights are under assault at Bucknell University, where a conservative student group's protests against affirmative action policies and President Obama's stimulus plan have repeatedly been shut down or forbidden by administrators using flimsy or patently false excuses. After the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC) had three events censored in two months, including the distribution of "Obama Stimulus Dollars" and an affirmative action bake sale, the students turned to FIRE for help. The case is still ongoing.

Case Materials

• "Former FIRE Intern on 'Glenn Beck' to Discuss Problems for Conservatives on Campus," May 12, 2011: Former FIRE intern Kirby Thomas of Bucknell University is scheduled to be on FOX News' Glenn Beck television program tomorrow at 5 p.m. ET. Kirby and other student guests are expected to discuss the problems often faced by conservative students who wish to speak out on campus. After Bucknell censored its Conservatives Club, of which Kirby was a leader, FIRE put Bucknell on FIRE's Red Alert list of the worst of the worst schools for liberty on campus. Tune into FOX News Channel on Friday at 5 for the show!
• "FIRE Third Letter to Bucknell University President John Bravman, November 11, 2010," November 11, 2010
• "FOX News Homepage Featuring Video on Stossel's Affirmative Action Bake Sale," November 10, 2010
• "FIRE Places Billboard Criticizing Bucknell University's Free Speech Record," September 20, 2010: One of the main ways that universities maintain immoral and unconstitutional speech codes is to keep alumni and parents in the dark about rules that restrict student and faculty speech. That is why today FIRE has purchased a billboard advertisement to publicize Bucknell University's poor record on free speech. Trustees, alumni, and others traveling northbound on Route 15 will see the billboard near Bucknell's campus in Lewisburg, Pa.
• "FIRE Second Letter to Bucknell University President John Bravman," September 1, 2010
• "Response to FIRE from Bucknell General Counsel Wayne Bromfield," January 18, 2010
• "FIRE 2010 U.S. News Letter to Bucknell President Brian C. Mitchell," January 7, 2010
• "Bucknell's Response to FIRE's Fourth Letter," September 29, 2009
• "FIRE Fourth Letter to Bucknell University Administrators," September 24, 2009
• "Red Alert: Bucknell University Hardens Policy Used to Shut Down Student Protests; Student Newspaper Rejects FIRE Ad," September 21, 2009: A culture of fear appears to be chilling expression at Bucknell University, where even the student newspaper fears a libel lawsuit from Associate Dean of Students Gerald W. Commerford if it were to print a critical advertisement from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). After Bucknell administrators misapplied and abused Bucknell's Sales and Solicitation and nondiscrimination policies last semester to shut down the Bucknell University Conservatives Club's (BUCC's) protests of affirmative action and President Obama's economic stimulus, the group turned to FIRE for help. Bucknell has expanded and hardened the language in its policies affecting such protests and still insists that "affirmative action bake sales" have no place in the public areas of the campus. FIRE now lists Bucknell as a Red Alert school, one of only six "worst of the worst" schools in America when it comes to student rights on campus.
• "FIRE's rejected Bucknell ad," September 18, 2009
• "Bucknell Policy on Sales and Promotions," September 2, 2009
• "Lenore Flower E-mail to FIRE," September 1, 2009
• "'Counterweight' Article "Racial Fires"," August 27, 2009
• "'Counterweight' Article on President's Resignation," August 27, 2009
• "Letters to the Editor of the 'Counterweight'," August 27, 2009
• "FIRE Third Letter in the Matter of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club," August 6, 2009
• "Second Letter to FIRE from Wayne A. Bromfield, Bucknell General Counsel," July 9, 2009
• "FIRE Second Letter to Bucknell University President Brian C. Mitchell," June 30, 2009
• "E-Mail from Wayne A. Bromfield, Bucknell General Counsel," June 24, 2009
• "Letter to FIRE from Bucknell General Counsel Wayne Bromfield," June 11, 2009
• "Bucknell University Slams Door on Student Satires of Obama Stimulus Plan, Affirmative Action," June 11, 2009: Student rights are under assault at Bucknell University, where a conservative student group's protests against affirmative action policies and President Obama's stimulus plan have repeatedly been shut down or forbidden by administrators using flimsy or patently false excuses. After the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC) had three events censored in two months, the students turned to FIRE for help.
• "FIRE Letter to Bucknell University President Brian C. Mitchell," May 21, 2009
• "BUCC Bake Sale Audio Recording," May 5, 2009
• "E-Mail from Judy Mickanis to Travis Eaione," May 4, 2009
• "Affirmative Education," The Counterweight, May 1, 2009
• "Power to the People," The Counterweight, May 1, 2009
• "BUCC donut sale rejected by administration," The Bucknellian, April 24, 2009
• "Bucknell Affirmative Action Bake Sale Shut Down Video Recording," April 11, 2009
• "Event Blockade," The Counterweight, April 1, 2009
• "Back of Obama Stimulus Dollar," March 17, 2009
• "Front of Obama Stimulus Dollar," March 17, 2009
• "Sales and Solicitation Policy," March 9, 2009

Blog Entries

• "A 'Bake Sale' Protest at Aquinas College (Bucknell, Are You Listening?)," by Robert Shibley, February 2, 2012
• "'Stossel' Show Exposes Censorship at Bucknell, Yale, and More," by Adam Kissel, November 18, 2011
• "An Open Letter to Bucknell University's New President," by Adam Kissel, November 11, 2010
• "John Stossel Discusses Bucknell's 'Affirmative Action Bake Sale' (and His Own) with Fox News' Megyn Kelly; Watch FIRE on 'Stossel' Tonight," by Peter Bonilla, November 11, 2010
• "Finally, a Positive Free Speech Story from Bucknell ," by Jordan Fischetti, October 11, 2010
• "The 'Bucknellian' Publicizes FIRE's Electronic Billboard," by Joanna Brenner, October 8, 2010
• "FIRE'S Billboard Ad about Bucknell University on Route 15," by Joanna Brenner, September 23, 2010
• "FIRE Places Billboard Criticizing Bucknell University's Free Speech Record," by Peter Bonilla, September 20, 2010
• "Red Alert at Bucknell University: Permission Needed to Promote a Cause," by Adam Kissel, September 3, 2010
• "Bucknell University Would Thwart AAUW 'Wage Gap' Bake Sales," by Adam Kissel, July 1, 2010
• "Bucknell's General Counsel Abuses the Truth to an Exceptional Degree--Even for Him," by Adam Kissel, June 10, 2010
• "In Which Bucknell’s General Counsel Calls Me a Big Ole Liar," by Robert Shibley, June 4, 2010
• "Still Looking for a New Year's Resolution, Red Alert Schools?," by Peter Bonilla, January 14, 2010
• "Bucknell Alumnus Prefers Rival Lehigh on Free Speech," by Adam Kissel, October 20, 2009
• "Do Bucknell Administrators Believe in Free Speech or Not?," by Peter Bonilla, September 28, 2009: After a Bucknell undergraduate reported that several top Bucknell administrators, including President Brian Mitchell, have affirmed the right of Bucknell students to hold an "affirmative action bake sale" on campus, FIRE has written each of them to verify that they have repudiated Bucknell's earlier shutdown and censorship of such satirical political protests. Bucknell had prevented the Bucknell University Conservatives Club from distributing "Obama stimulus dollars" on campus and from holding its protest bake sale, earning Bucknell a spot on FIRE's Red Alert list. If Bucknell affirms that the undergraduate's report is true and that speech is once again free at Bucknell, FIRE will gladly and immediately remove Bucknell from our Red Alert list.
• "Rejected FIRE Ad at Bucknell Reported by Student Press Law Center," by Adam Kissel, September 23, 2009
• " How Can Bucknell University Get Off FIRE’s Red Alert List? ," by Peter Bonilla, September 21, 2009
• "Bucknell Revises ‘Solicitation’ Policy after Administrators Use It Repeatedly to Shut Down Student Speech," by Adam Kissel, September 18, 2009
• "Bucknell's Oppression of Free Speech in Today's Issue of 'Human Events'," by Adam Kissel, September 9, 2009
• "Bucknell University Joins Worst Offenders Against Liberty on FIRE’s Red Alert List," by Peter Bonilla, August 25, 2009: Bucknell University has been named to FIRE's Red Alert list after a conservative student group's protests against affirmative action policies and President Obama's stimulus plan were repeatedly shut down or forbidden by administrators using flimsy or patently false excuses. After the Bucknell University Conservatives Club (BUCC) had three events censored in two months, including the distribution of "Obama Stimulus Dollars" and affirmative action bake sales, the students turned to FIRE for help.
• "FIRE Releases Video about Bucknell Case," by Jennifer Feden, August 12, 2009
• "‘A Crackdown on Free Speech at … Bucknell University?’," by Greg Lukianoff, June 29, 2009
• "Bucknell University Lies Again," by Adam Kissel, June 25, 2009
• "Bucknell President Resigns Effective June 2010," by Adam Kissel, June 24, 2009
• "AP and ‘Wall Street Journal’ Pick Up on Bucknell's Violation of Conservative Students' Rights," by Adam Kissel, June 23, 2009
• "‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ on Bucknell Bake Sale Fiasco," June 23, 2009
• "Bucknell Alumni on Bucknell," by Robert Shibley, June 17, 2009
• "Bucknell to Student Conservatives, Liberty: Drop Dead," by Robert Shibley, June 11, 2009
• "Bucknell University Slams Door on Bibles, Student Satires of Obama Stimulus Plan, Affirmative Action," by Adam Kissel, June 11, 2009

Media Coverage

• "JOHN STOSSEL: Get Your Affirmative Action Cupcakes Here!,"
  by John Stossel, FOXNews.com, November 10, 2010
• "Bucknell should embrace free speech as Lehigh University does,"
  by Charles Mitchell, The Morning Call, October 20, 2009
• "FIRE blames newspaper's ad refusal on school's 'culture of fear',"
  by Anne Elliot, Student Press Law Center, September 23, 2009
• "BUCCing the Bucknell Liberals,"
  by Travis Eaione and Peter Bonilla, Human Events, September 9, 2009
• "A crackdown on free speech at … Bucknell University?,"
  by Robert Shibley, Pajamas Media, June 27, 2009
• "Bucknell and the ‘Affirmative-Action Bakesale’,"
  by Ashby Jones, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog, June 23, 2009
• "Bucknell bake sale sparks First Amendment debate,"
  by Susan Snyder, Philadelphia Inquirer, June 23, 2009
• "Bucknell University requires permit to hand out Bibles,"
  by Staff Editorial, WorldNetDaily, June 11, 2009