Another attempt to regulate and restrict the free exchange of ideas in college classrooms has been rejected. Facing pressure from faculty members and students across the state, Delegate Landes has pulled his HB 118 from consideration. Though this year’s bill was a very watered down version of last year’s HB 1643, it still would have required the state legislature to scrutinize how classroom content and hiring decisions were conducted—a sure recipe for self-censorship.
When faculty and students speak out against a bill that is
harmful to higher education, elected officials listen and take note. As you’ll recall, last year’s damaging
“intellectual diversity” bill was defeated in the House of Delegates after
students and faculty from around the state spoke out against it. This year, the sponsor of that legislation
and this year’s watered down version (HB 118), Delegate Landes, has finally
gotten the message that restricting the free exchange of ideas is intolerable
to faculty and students alike in Virginia. This morning, Del. Landes decided to pull his
bill this morning before it would have been voted down in the Education and
Health Committee.
Even this year’s watered down version of HB 118 would have
damaged academic freedom and restricted the free exchange of ideas so critical
to students’ education. Having the most
political body in the state—the general assembly—looking into how classroom
content is regulated year in and year out is a sure recipe for self-censorship
and damaged education.
Both students and faculty members from college and
universities throughout the state also sent their own messages to the General
Assembly with their opposition to HB 118.
The student government at Christopher
Newport University
passed a letter of opposition to the government oversight portion of the
bill. The Student Council at William
& Mary also passed a resolution in opposition to HB 118 entitled “The
Reject HB 118 Act”.
As W&M Student Council President Zach Pilchen said in an
article printed in the Flat
Hat, “The school would have to keep the state [apprised] of all its
programming,” Pilchen said. “Any time
politics gets involved with campus programming, it gets ugly.”
Let’s hope that Delegate Landes listens to the students and
faculty for good and stops bringing back
the same old rejected bill for a third straight year that would be a waste
of time for the General Assembly and hurt Virginia’s higher education
system.