{"id":23996,"date":"2015-09-28T11:53:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T15:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23996"},"modified":"2015-09-28T11:53:06","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T15:53:06","slug":"political-correctness-challenges-campus-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/09\/28\/political-correctness-challenges-campus-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Correctness Challenges Campus Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23997\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Some top comedians say they're not performing on college campuses because students are too easily offended. A group is now tracking speech policies on campus.\" href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/09\/9-28-MicrophonePhoto.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23997\" alt=\"Some top comedians say they're not performing on college campuses because students are too easily offended. A group is now tracking speech policies on campus.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/09\/9-28-MicrophonePhoto-620x413.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/09\/9-28-MicrophonePhoto-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/09\/9-28-MicrophonePhoto-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/09\/9-28-MicrophonePhoto.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Alpima<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some top comedians say they&#39;re not performing on college campuses because students are too easily offended. A group is now tracking speech policies on campus.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Know the joke about how many college students it takes to screw in a light bulb?<\/p>\n<p>Probably not, since it\u2019s not a real joke. Nor is the decision some comedians are making to avoid college campuses where they say students today are too easily offended.<\/p>\n<p>Back in June, comedian Jerry Seinfeld told ESPN radio that he was joining Chris Rock, Larry the Cable Guy and others who won\u2019t play college campuses because they\u2019ve become too politically correct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear that all the time,&#8221; Seinfeld told ESPN Radio.\u00a0 &#8220;I don\u2019t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me don\u2019t go near colleges \u2014 they\u2019re so PC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/225925838&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Seinfeld shared his own daughter\u2019s take on the environment on college campuses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey just want to use these words \u2014\u2018That\u2019s racist. That\u2019s sexist. That\u2019s prejudiced,\u2019\u201d he told radio host Colin Cowherd.<\/p>\n<p>Comedians who won\u2019t perform at college campuses is not one of the most burning issues facing education today. But since universities are seen as places where students are challenged with new ideas, and new ways of thinking, this political correctness may be threatening other kinds of free speech.<\/p>\n<p>The Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit, non-partisan group created to defend civil liberties at colleges, created a free-speech rating system of more than 400 schools nationwide.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/I0RDT0WgZ3g\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Will Creeley, the group\u2019s vice president of legal and public advocacy, said the system ranks campuses on a traffic signal model. A green light means the institution has open and free speech, a yellow light means not enough or vague rules about speech and a red light means a school has at least one policy that they say is restrictive.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a list of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/spotlight\/\" data-cke-saved-href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/spotlight\/\"><strong>scores<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Creeley uses the University of Central Florida in Orlando as an example. In Spring 2013, professor Hyung-il Jung was suspended for three weeks after making an in-class joke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was leading a review session for his 25 students in an accounting course, and he noticed that their attention was starting to flag. And he said to the class, \u2018This next question is very difficult. It looks like you guys are being slowly suffocated by these questions. Am I on a killing spree, or what?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-four students knew Jung was joking, but one filed a complaint.<\/p>\n<p>UCF ordered Jung to undergo a mental health evaluation before he would be allowed to return to teaching. After a petition from almost 500 students and the threat of a lawsuit from FIRE, the professor was reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>Jung declined an interview request, but said in an email, \u201cI have decided to remain silent, making no comments for many different reasons, at least for a while.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Creeley said first amendment attorneys call this the \u2018chilling effect\u2019 on free speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce you\u2019ve been investigated, threatened with discipline, put through the ringer for telling a joke, you very rationally might decide that you better keep your mouth shut next time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>David Thompson is a college freshman and a member of the Student Government at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He said complaints from students do get a lot of attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think just in the way media works, that when somebody makes a big protest about something that that\u2019s what\u2019s going to be heard,&#8221; Thompson said.\u00a0 &#8220;I think it\u2019s really only offensive if somebody\u2019s telling you that this is what you need to believe, or that this is an accurate depiction of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, media have covered student protests of commencement speakers such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, comedian Bill Maher, and others refusing assigned reading because of objectionable content like a depiction of rape.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncreasingly, FIRE is worried that students are demanding a kind of intellectual comfort rather than the thrill and productive challenge of going outside of their own known experience,&#8221; Creeley said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a saying here at FIRE. If you go to school for four years and aren\u2019t once offended you should ask for your money back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>William Felice, associate dean and a professor at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, said colleges and universities do have a responsibility to protect students, to a point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are past book burning when students come here, from day one we say to them you\u2019re going to be exposed to different material and you may not like it,&#8221; Felice said.\u00a0 &#8220;It may be uncomfortable, but that\u2019s part of what the education process is about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said there\u2019s reason behind pushing students.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our goal is to teach students to critically think and become good citizens as a result, able to contribute to public policy, able to sort out the difference between demagoguery and punditry and reasoned argument,&#8221; Felice said.\u00a0 &#8220;That&#8217;s really what we&#8217;re about.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Know the joke about how many college students it takes to screw in a light bulb? Probably not, since it\u2019s not a real joke. Nor is the decision some comedians are making to avoid college campuses where they say students today are too easily offended. Back in June, comedian Jerry Seinfeld told ESPN radio that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":23997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1065,1040,976],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23996"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24003,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996\/revisions\/24003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}