‘Tulane Hullabaloo’ on Tulane’s Speech Codes

Today, the editorial board of The Tulane Hullabaloo, the student paper at Tulane University, has written an editorial in support of FIRE's analysis of Tulane's "red light" policies. The piece quotes FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley and calls for the university to promote free speech on campus.

The editorial board writes, in part:

"There's the concern that it's very difficult to define what is ‘inappropriate'"... Shibley said. "Those are definitions that depend on the opinion of the person you ask, and what's inappropriate to somebody might not be to their friend or roommate."

Efforts to create a positive campus environment should stem from movements like One Wave - the campus-wide effort to make Tulane a friendlier place - not from restrictive free speech policies in the Student Guide of Policy, Procedures and Resources.

Tulane should work with FIRE to ensure that its policies give students real freedom of speech. Though students currently have little or no reason to complain about the administration's actions regarding freedom of speech, we need to protect our rights for the future.

FIRE hopes that the Tulane administration will take the Hullabaloo's request seriously and will seek to revise the policies that restrict the free speech of Tulane students.