The first amendment is not about protecting sensitivity

Opinions – The University Star







By Rachael Shah
A university is supposed to be a free market place of opinion. It is a place to voice ideas, accumulate knowledge and openly discuss certain controversial issues in order to promote personal growth. It is essential college students continue to appropriately express their differing opinions with one another in order to spur intelligent discussions.
Unfortunately, certain universities are beginning to restrict free speech by implementing self-censorship and “free-speech zones.”
Free-speech zones are defined as  designated areas on campus where students can openly express ideas. Thus, implying students in any other area on campus should refrain from talking about controversial issues such as politics and religion.
Although these zones are implemented in order to make students more comfortable, they are ultimately regressive. As a college student, I am appalled certain universities think it constitutional and beneficial to limit what can be discussed on a public university.
Before I go on, I want to make clear I am not advocating for hate speech. Hate speech is very different from debating opinions openly on campus. As long as no one is being directly attacked or harmed, I think students should be mature enough to accept differing opinions—no matter how uncomfortable it may make them.
Recently, a controversial column concerning Greek life was published in the university newspaper. The column contained a reliable statistic regarding rape correlating with Greek members. The column did not target a specific fraternity nor did it target a specific individual. However, our next student body president, Connor Clegg, indirectly threatened to restrict publication and enforce prior restraint.
“I’ve been biting my tongue on this because I respect the free-press, however, no student should pay money to be unfairly, unduly, and inappropriately called a rapist by the school’s newspaper.” Clegg wrote on Facebook. “No one deserves to be unfairly called out because of a ...


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