3.  University students deserve human rights
    by Wendy McElroy
    mac{at}zetetics.com

Special to TLE

University campuses are strongholds of left liberalism where
Constitutionally-protected rights, such as freedom of speech and religion,
http://www.shadowuniv.com/ are routinely violated. This September, make
sure the students you care for pack protection of their civil liberties in
with clothing and reference books.

This is essential for students who are male, white, conservative, openly
Christian, or from affluent families.

  * http://www.thefire.org/issues/990126wiscmemo.html Male. Speech
    codes -- or anti-harassment codes that function in the same
    manner -- are rampant on campuses. Since "women" are a group
    offered protection against "offense," the codes especially
    restrict the speech of males. Students accused of "sexual
    misconduct" -- from rape to off-color jokes -- can face the
    university equivalent of a
    http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0045/hentoff.php "star
    chamber" -- a secret proceeding -- in which they have no judicial
    rights even though the outcome could ruin their academic careers.

  * White. Whites are not only disadvantaged by admission policies that
    explicitly discriminate in favor of "minorities," they are also
    targeted by "hate speech" policies. A
    http://www.thefire.org/transcript.php?doc=hannity_colmes_070803.html
    white CalPoly student was punished last month for posting an ad in
    the "public" multicultural center for a speech by a well-known
    black conservative; the speech compared welfare dependence to
    living "on the plantation." An offended black student called the
    police.

  * http://www.thefire.org/pr.php?doc=um_050803.inc Conservative. The
    University of Miami recently denied recognition to a conservative
    club on the grounds that, since a Republican club already existed,
    another conservative group would be redundant. Yet liberal groups,
    including a Democratic club, abounded. Without such recognition a
    student group cannot use the tax-paid facilities to meet on campus.

  * http://www.thefire.org/offsite.php?page=townhall_060503.html Openly
    Christian. The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC)
    recently threatened to remove all privileges and funding from the
    InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) because adhering to
    Christian doctrine was a requirement for those assuming group
    leadership. Last year,
    http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5402
    "Rutgers did "de-list" an IVCF group who refused to accept non-
    Christian leaders because it would violate their right to meet
    based on "shared belief."

  * http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030720-115936-6451r.htm
    Affluent. The University of California is pioneering a proposal
    that undergrads with family incomes exceeding $90,000 should pay
    as much as $3,000 more to attend despite the fact that those
    families would have paid more in taxes to support its nine
    "public" campuses.

How do you protect the rights and dignity of a student for whom you care?

One place to start is with the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE) which has been defending the victims in such cases... and
doing so with resounding success.

FIRE's most recent project directly addresses "the urgent need for
students and parents to understand the legal and moral status of student
rights on our nation's campuses and to understand the means to defend and
assert these rights." It does so in the form of
http://www.thefireguides.org/ five books: three of which are currently
available.

The free online Guides offer the theory, history, and legal precedents
surrounding five specific areas ofrights violation. But more than this.
They offer specific and subtle advice on how to handle violations of those
rights. Subtle because the Guides carefully distinguish between obligations
of private and public (state-funded) universities in relation to student
"rights."

http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:InD3666SQLsJ:www.nacua.org/
documents/FIREGuide_religious-liberty.pdf+%22Guide+to+Religious+Liberty
+on+Campus%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
[WATCH FOR LINE-WRAP]
The Guide to Religious Liberty on Campus advises, "Consider Tufts
University, Grinnell College, Williams College, Ball State University,
Whitman College, Middlebury College, Randolph-Macon Women's College, the
State University of New York at Oswego, Wichita State University, Castleton
State College, and Purdue University." These are just some of the
"schools that have sought to either ban outright or heavily regulate
the activities of religious students or religious student groups."

The Guide to Religious Liberty explains that, if a public university
permits any "expressive organization" -- those organized around a
specific belief -- then it must allow religious ones on the same basis:
equal access to campus facilities and funding, freedom from interference,
and due process. If a private university has a stated policy on religious
toleration, then it may have a contractual obligation to sponsor religious
groups on the same footing as others.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:iXLfYdHfVlsJ:www.nacua.org/
documents/FIREGuide_student-fees.pdf+%22Guide+to+Student+Fees,+
Funding+and+Legal+Equality+on+Campus%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
[WATCH LINE WRAP!]
The Guide to Student Fees, Funding and Legal Equality on Campus explains,
"Many students attending public colleges and universities are
surprised and sometimes outraged to learn that school rules require them to
fund groups that advocate ideas they find morally or politically
unacceptable" -- from feminism to communism, from environmentalism to
transgendered rights. Students ask, "How can universities force me, as
a condition of getting an education here,
to fund groups with which I morally disagree?"

This second Guide explains whether mandatory funding is legal and how
objecting students can defend themselves against the practice.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:ZqXouT6ZdOUJ:www.thefireguides.
com/guides/due-process.pdf+%22Guide+to+Due+Process+and+Fair+Procedure
+on+Campus%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
[WATCH LINE WRAP!]
The "Guide to Due Process and Fair Procedure on Campus" states,
"Students should know their rights and liberties...If an innocent
person is charged with wrongdoing, what protections should that innocent
person have against being wrongly or arbitrar-ily punished and
dishonored?"

The Guide details precisely which judicial rights accused students retain
and what they should do to protect themselves against arbitrary punishment.

The remaining two Guides -- on Free Speech and
http://reason.com/0003/fe.ak.thought.shtml on Thought Reform -- will be
available by the end of September 2003.

The Guides are essential to the civil liberties and human dignity of every
university student. Let the students you care for know how to defend
themselves against injustice.

--
Visit my home page and blog at http://www.zetetics.com/mac
drop by ifeminists.com http://www.ifeminists.com
For photo (05/02/02) http://www.zetetics.com/mac/vesuvio.jpg

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