University of Massachusetts at Amherst: Student Government Tries to Punish Conservative Newspaper

Under pressure from FIRE, University of Massachusetts Amherst rejected the student government's official censorship of The Minuteman, a conservative campus newspaper that mocked a student government official. Student Vanessa Snow was ridiculed in an issue of The Minutemen and decided to steal copies of the newspaper, an act for which she has since been reprimanded. Snow is a leader of UMass' Student Bridges, a campus organization supported by the UMass Amherst Student Government Association (SGA). The SGA passed a resolution demanding the Silent Majority, the student organization that publishes the newspaper, apologize to Snow for its constitutionally protected mockery or face loss of recognition. In the end, after receiving a letter from FIRE, the UMass administration used its veto powers to reject the resolution, allowing the Silent Majority its right to free speech.