The post-millennials have arrived. As the oldest millennials turn 37, demographers have designated a new generation for those born after 1996, Generation Z. The oldest members of this cohort just graduated from college and had their first (legal) alcoholic beverages. As they wind their way through college, post-millennials will change higher education, just as previous … Continue reading “Generation Z: The Intolerant Ones”
Join the Martin Center for our annual policy banquet on Wednesday, October 11 at City Club Raleigh in Raleigh, North Carolina. Our guest speaker will be Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Shibley’s talk will provide insight into due process on campus – a higher … Continue reading “Second Annual Policy Banquet”
When it comes to defending themselves against accusations, college students are fighting an uphill battle. Today, students accused of misconduct are often subjected to long and invasive investigation processes without the right to legal representation, to question witnesses, or to be presumed innocent until proven guilty—all basic due process procedures to which every student should … Continue reading “Everyone is Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Except College Students”
Since launching its Stand Up for Free Speech project in 2014, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has had a great deal of success in defeating college officials when they interfere with the free speech of students. But you can’t win them all, and a recent decision went against FIRE and the students … Continue reading “Student Free Speech Suffers a Defeat”
The authoritarianism that increasingly characterizes the American professoriate is on full display in a case involving the master’s program in social work at Rhode Island College (RIC). A student who did not believe that lobbying the state legislature for “progressive” causes was properly a part of his education and suffered for it has filed suit … Continue reading “Either Support Our Politics or Find Another Field”
(Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Forbes.com.) Hostility to free speech has become a salient characteristic of American college campuses. Speech codes that make it dangerous for students (or anyone else) to say things that might be regarded as offensive or “harassing” are all too common—even though the codes have been found to violate … Continue reading “Shouldn’t an Entire Campus Be a Free Speech Zone—Not Just .02 Percent of It?”
Politics is on many people’s minds this year, so this is a good time to write about that topic. But the politics I’m thinking about does not involve the presidency. Rather, I’m thinking about the politics of shared governance in higher education—specifically, the relationship between university senates and their administrations. While shared governance sounds like … Continue reading “Faculty Senate Shrugged”
Imagine a college student who has just formed a student group. In order to generate interest in this group, the student goes to the student union and passes out flyers for the inaugural meeting. According to North Carolina State University, this student has just violated campus policy by failing to gain prior approval for his … Continue reading “NC State Continues to Defend Unconstitutional Policy”
In the last few years, the rights of students in North Carolina universities have received some significant new protections. It is important that state legislators and educators continue to do so, for such rights—pertaining to free speech and due process of punitive proceedings—have been under assault on college campuses nationwide in recent years.