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U. of Kansas Faculty, Staff Declare Support for Suspended Professor's First Amendment Rights
As 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 Peter Bonilla reported yesterday, 13 faculty members of the University of Kansas (KU) journalism department released a disappointing statement supporting the university鈥檚 suspension of journalism professor David Guth after he posted a controversial statement on Twitter regarding the National Rifle Association and September鈥檚 Navy Yard shootings. Thankfully, more than 100 current and former KU staff and faculty members have recognized the importance of freedom of expression and have signed on to a declaration of support for Guth鈥檚 First Amendment rights. The statement :
As members of the faculty and staff of the University of Kansas, the undersigned individuals strongly support the freedoms of expression specified in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Whatever one may think of Professor David Guth鈥檚 recent comments, we support his right to express his ideas, just as we support the rights of others to express their own opinions about his comments. Promoting freedom of expression should be a core value of any university.
It is encouraging that these staff and faculty members have demonstrated an understanding of First Amendment principles.
According to the Lawrence Journal-World, KU Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs Tim Caboni has said that KU is forming a committee in order to investigate the situation but that there is no timeline for when that investigation will be completed. Meanwhile, Guth remains removed from his classes indefinitely, despite KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little鈥檚 claim that KU鈥檚 actions were meant to 鈥渁void further disruption of the learning environment.鈥 It seems to me that 鈥渄isruption of the learning environment鈥 might be better avoided by allowing a professor to keep teaching since he poses no demonstrated danger to students and there are no claims that he was failing to perform his job duties.
Furthering the potential for univerity-caused disruption is the fact that some members of the State Senate have said that unless Guth is fired, they will not vote for KU鈥檚 budget. Former history professor Bill Tuttle to the Lawrence Journal-World that legislators have used this maneuver before. In 2003, an investigation by KU revealed no support for a legislator鈥檚 claims that a professor had sexually harassed female students, and the legislature鈥檚 subsequent attempts to cut funding to KU were halted only by then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius鈥 veto. As FIREhas pointed out before, legislative efforts to curtail speech by cutting funding to schools undermine the very purpose of universities and must be strongly opposed.
As the faculty and staff statement quoted above suggests, the best answer to speech with which you disagree is more speech, and the First Amendment protects individuals who want to criticize Guth鈥檚 message. But holding school funding hostage, interrupting classes, and suspending a professor are not appropriate responses to an out-of-class and constitutionally protected remark. KU administrators must follow these scores of staff and faculty in publicly acknowledging that Guth鈥檚 speech is constitutionally protected, so that student and faculty speech will not be chilled in the future. That would be, as Gray-Little says, 鈥渋n the best interests of students.鈥
FIRE is a faculty rights organization that can help you defend your rights on campus because higher education should be a marketplace of ideas, free from threats to free expression.
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