RATING FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS
Last week, I attended the board of trustees meeting of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which is doing great work upholding academic freedom, due process, and freedom of conscience on campuses. One of its new initiatives is a comprehensive website, Speechcodes.org, which tracks the status of speech restrictions on campuses. Along with a wealth of background information on the issues involved, the site rates how well 300 colleges and universities adhere to constitutional protections (for public universities) and their own promises (for private schools). Schools with clearly problematic rules get a red light, those who clearly protect free speech get a green, and those who fall in the middle get a yellow.