This week the University of Delaware held a panel discussion on the First Amendment rights of students on public campuses. While we’re happy that University acknowledges that students are sometimes unclear about their rights on campus, the message the panel seemed to convey was that campus speech is a tricky issue that the courts have been inconsistent on.
On the contrary, we believe that the Supreme Court has been quite clear that our public colleges are not immune from the sweep of the First Amendment. They have gone so far as to say the vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools." (Healy v James, 1972). Moreover, the educational mission of colleges and universities necessitates an environment that allows a free exchange of ideas.
Of course universities have specific missions that they need to ensure they fulfill. Accordingly, institutions of higher education can place reasonable restrictions on the time, place and manner of speech in order to ensure they are able to fulfill their mission.
Where the difficulty sometimes lies is in defining what restrictions are really reasonable to fulfill this goal. While it makes sense to ensure activities aren’t so loud they drown out classes, restrictions on speech often go far beyond what is necessary and can impede the learning process on campus. In general however, students should be able to expect that they possess the same rights to speech and expression on campus as they do off.
It’s good that the administration at the University of Delaware is taking it upon itself to educate its students about their rights on campus. But everyone is better off when everyone on campus understands that they are free to speak and express themselves on campus rather than treating students’ rights as complex and convoluted issues that only