George Mason University: Unconstitutional Policies and Suppression of Dissent

Case Materials

• "FIRE Challenges Unconstitutional Policies at George Mason University," FIRE Press Release, November 17, 2005: FIRE is challenging unconstitutional policies at George Mason University (GMU). Earlier this fall, such policies led to the arrest of a GMU student who was protesting military recruiters on its Northern Virginia campus.
• "George Mason University Policy Number 1110," November 17, 2005
• "George Mason University Policy Number 1109," November 17, 2005
• "Associated Press Article on Dropping of Charges Against Tariq Khan, November 14, 2005," November 14, 2005
• "Letter from George Mason University Chief of Staff J. Thomas Hennessey, Jr., to FIRE, November 2, 2005," November 2, 2005
• "FIRE Letter to George Mason University President Alan G. Merten, October 27, 2005," October 27, 2005
• "Campus Progress Article Describing Tariq Khan Incident, October 12, 2005," October 12, 2005

Media Coverage

• "A new wave of PC on campus," Cathy Young, The Boston Globe, December 12, 2005: FIRE, co-founded by Boston civil rights attorney Harvey Silverglate and University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors, is a nonpartisan organization that champions free expression on college campuses. When the organization was launched in 1998, its main focus was ''political correctness" from the left -- attempts to curtail speech regarded as racist, sexist, or otherwise injurious to diversity. Such censorship still endures. But alongside it, FIRE is seeing more cases in which speech is suppressed by political correctness on the right.
• "Clash of campus freedom, civility," Andrew Petkofsky, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Va.), December 11, 2005: Colleges may curb free expression inadvertently, or at least indirectly, by creating rules to govern where and when students may speak out, post handbills or hold events. But French said his organization gets even more complaints that grow from schools' overzealous efforts to protect people from harassment.