Rights in the News: Class Back in Session for Violators of Campus Speech

Classes are barely in session, and already FIRE and its allies have hit the ground running. As Luke noted earlier, Will was at Cornell University this week discussing the "Trojan horses" of campus speech codes, including the ones which have resulted in Cornell's current "red light" rating on FIRE's Spotlight. Read the Cornell Daily Sun's coverage for more on the start of what promises to be a very busy year for FIRE's speakers bureau.

Brandeis University undergraduate Daniel Ortner and Cornell undergraduate John Cetta, meanwhile, are busy putting their 2009 FIRE internship experiences to use, evidenced by Daniel's most recent column for The Brandeis Hoot and John's piece for The D.C. Writeup.

And as we noted this week, Harvard University has been ensnared in yet another free speech embarrassment. On the heels of an investigation by New York Times reporter Duff Wilson, the Harvard Medical School (HMS) administration promised to revise a policy which seemingly placed onerous restrictions on HMS students' rights to speak with the media. Dean for Students Nancy Oriol says in the article that the policy as written "doesn't really capture our intent." (Funny how a little sunlight can do that.) Adam and Harvey consulted on Wilson's investigation, and you can read Wilson's article as well as Adam's Torch post for Harvey's thoughts on the increasing "corporatization" of Harvard, with the HMS dustup being only the most recent example.