Click here for the “He Said” from the Orientation Issue
Click here for the “She Said” from the Orientation Issue
Many Fairfield faculty members are speaking out against the administration’s decision to censor The Mirror’s summertime orientation issue. The faculty’s governing body also is expected to investigate the incident.
“If the orientation issue of The Mirror was pulled from the stands in more or less the way described in the most recent Mirror, then that was outrageous,” said professor Richard DeWitt from the department of philosophy.
Professor Don Greenberg of the politics department agrees with DeWitt.
“I consider the censorship of The Mirror an outrage,” said Greenberg.
“It is an insult to the student body to assume they [the students] cannot distinguish between serious ideas and either bad taste or sophomoric humor,” he added.
Professor Robbin Crabtree of the communication department said that even if the pieces were disliked, it does not mean they should have been censored.
“While I may be offended and disappointed by some of what students write in The Mirror, and He Said/She Said might be one of the more objectionable features, I would never condone censorship or administrative interference in student media,” said Crabtree.
The issues of censorship and free speech have even caused a stir among faculty on the Academic Council, which was established by President von Arx in June of 2005 after a forum on same-sex marriage was cancelled at the university.
Secretary of the General Faculty, professor Irene Mulvey, spoke on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Academic Council saying that an incident in violation of academic freedom “would be appropriate to take up and could appear on the agenda for the next meeting.”
The Academic Council is the executive arm of the General Faculty and is able to make decisions and recommendations on any matter of academic concern.
In a report the Committee completed on academic freedom, the faculty concurred that college and university students should receive the same rights of freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and right of petition that all other American citizens practice.
An excerpt from this report states, “Faculty members and administration officials should ensure that institutional powers are not employed to inhibit such intellectual and personal development of students as is often promoted by their exercise of the rights of citizenship both on and off campus.”
The report also says that there are only two exceptions to this policy of academic freedom – the first being if the material violates the law, and the second only if the material violates the university policy on harassment.
Neither of these was present in the orientation issue, which was pulled.
Many faculty members have expressed distaste for the actions of former Director of New Student Programs Deirdre Eller’s decision to pull the copies of the “controversial” issue from racks.
Professor William Abbott of the department of history said there are sadly many faculty and administrators on university campuses today who use the First Amendment selectively.
“When a speaker, performance, news article or other public presentation does not offend them but does offend somebody else, they are loud in defense of First Amendment rights. When, however, a presentation offends them, they somehow regard their case as exceptional and seek to censor the presentation,” Abbott said.
Professor Lisa Newton of the philosophy department said she wouldn’t have pulled the issue if given the chance.
“It causes a good deal more fuss and attention to the articles if you pull it than if you leave it there.”
Greenberg hopes the serious issue of Mirror censorship will have the whole campus promoting activism for free speech.
“I would hope all sectors in the university would rise up and express outrage at this censorship. It demeans Fairfield University to have this act pass without protest,” he said.
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