U of Alaska free speech example

Scott Bushee -- Staff Column

I read the most wonderful story the other day. Awhile back, Linda McCarriston, a creative writing professor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage got in some trouble for writing a poem entitled "Indian Girls."

While this sort of thing happens all of the time on campuses, the odd thing in this case was that the president of UAA actually backed the professor's right to free speech.

"This is a university. We allow ideas to be expressed. That's what happens," said Mark Hamilton, a former Army general and published poet. "As I told one caller, I defended the Constitution for 31 years, and I'm not going to abandon her just yet."

He further noted in a memo to the University of Alaska's three chancellors, "Attempts to assuage anger or to demonstrate concern by qualifying our support for free speech serve to cloud what must be a clear message," he said. "Noting that, for example, 'The University supports the right of free speech, but we intend to check into this matter' or 'The University supports the right of free speech, but I have asked Dean X or Provost Y to investigate the circumstances' is unacceptable."

In response to this, no one held a vigil or staged protests. Nor did they institute mandatory sensitivity training for faculty and students. The opposite happened. They held forums on freedom of speech for faculty, staff, and students.

Wouldn't it be a refreshing change of pace to see something like that happen around here? If we had people like Dr. Hamilton around to protect our Constitutional rights?

But let us be realistic. This is St. Cloud State University. Rather than defending the freedom of its faculty and students, our institution seems intent on apologizing for every perceived offense. We will find no help in them.

But we do have options.

On a national level, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (www.thefire.org) is a godsend. They are a group of First Amendment lawyers who work for students and professors in trouble with censorship on campus.

Locally, we have several groups who are doing some good work. The College Republicans have shown themselves many times to be defenders of free speech on campus. Even if you aren't a free market type, you might want to go to some of their meetings if you are concerned about freedom of speech.

We also have some professors in on the act. A small group has formed the SCSU chapter of the Minnesota Association of Scholars. If you are interested in who they are and what they are up to, check out Scsu-scholars.blogspot.com.

I hope that if any of you run into issues with censorship in the future, you remember that these people are out there to help you.

---

Scott Bushee can be reached at [email protected]