CARROLL: CC's free-speech fears

By Vincent Carroll, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Chris Robinson is a one-man free-speech movement. Colorado College, where Robinson is a senior majoring in political science, believes free speech on certain topics is worrisome and must be corralled. So its thought police subjected Robinson and a fellow student (who has chosen to remain anonymous) to an inquisition last month after they published a parody of a campus feminist flier known as The Monthly Rag.

For good measure, dean of students Mike Edmonds reached into his bag of tricks two weeks later and found Robinson and his colleague guilty of the farcical charge of "violating the student code of conduct policy on violence under the college value of Respect." Their flier, which claimed to be "brought to you by the coalition of some dudes," included a dumb discussion of "chainsaw etiquette" and a brief item noting the range of a "sniper rifle," but neither advocated violence or was remotely threatening.

To see for yourself, go to the Web site of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (thefire.org) and check out the file on Colorado College. While there, you might compare The Monthly Rag with The Monthly Bag (the parody) to determine which is actually more offensive.

The Monthly Rag features a promo for the "world-famous prostitute & porn star turned sexologist & artist" Annie Sprinkle, as well as a helpful list of definitions for various forms of "packing," which is what women outside "the gender binary" do when they want to create "the appearance of a phallus under clothing."

The Monthly Bag - a "caricature of hyper-masculinity," in Robinson's words - will offend some people, too. But the problem is who it offends. It commits the mortal sin of poking fun at the work of activists associated with the Feminist and Gender Studies program.

College spokeswoman Jane Turnis emphasizes that The Monthly Bag was plastered around campus just weeks after the shootings at Northern Illinois University. Fine, but from the outset officials were intent on condemning speech as much as in discovering whether they had a weirdo on their hands. That much is obvious from a campuswide e-mail President Richard Celeste sent out the same day. He denounced the flier's content as both "threatening and demeaning" before pompously urging an "appropriate" discussion of "how gender impacts our experience of the world and one another."

The e-mail could have been written by the folks in Feminist and Gender Studies.

Celeste - who may be unfamiliar with the rich tradition of anonymous political satire in this country dating to the Revolution - invited the "coalition of some dudes" to identify themselves, which the two-man coalition promptly did. Case closed, right? Two normal students and a harmless parody. No, not quite.

Robinson tells me that his appearance before a "student conduct committee" was an hours-long ordeal in which he was quizzed about his views on gender, class, sexism and privilege, among other things. It was "political correctness on steroids," he says, engineered by a "persecuting special-interest group" that has the college administration in its thrall.

Does Celeste appreciate the losing hand he holds? Perhaps, since he told a Colorado Springs TV station that the two students "were not sanctioned or punished." No? Perhaps not officially, but being taken to task by your college president and dean of students, as well as interrogated by a tribunal, might reasonably be considered punishment by some. Or at least an exercise in intimidation.

Colorado College's policy on academic freedom insists that "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be banned or forbidden." Robinson is challenging the college to reclaim that ideal.

As he declared recently in the campus newspaper, "Colorado College is a private institution, which means that from a legal standpoint it can do whatever it wants regarding speech. It can enforce political positions it regards as sacrosanct with legal impunity. But should it? Do you as a student think CC should be a campus with less protection for free speech than Pikes Peak Community College?"

Apparently many students don't. Robinson said Monday that those he talks to are "overwhelmingly in my favor, even if they hated The Monthly Bag. That's because there's a principle at stake."

Robinson has appealed his case, which another campus committee will hear. Maybe it will notice the "principle at stake" in time to save the college from further embarrassment.

Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.

• April 8, 2008

  6:46 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RJS07 writes:

  apparently Colorado College does not embrace the principle of free speech unless it is in some politically correct form--what is WRONG with this picture? I'm reminded of the fellow at Harvard who lost his job....I guess some of us girls have NO sense of humor.

• April 8, 2008

  9:46 a.m.

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  Hazardous_T writes:

  It is truly amazing the hypocracy on campuses these days. They seem to be for freedom of speech as long as you only say what they want to hear. Reasoned debate has become impossible on the subjects of race, gender, evolution, the evils of socialism and the fact that global warming just might be caused by the sun.
  It seems to me that there is more indoctrination than education happening at CC.

• April 8, 2008

  10:08 a.m.

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  SASQUATCH writes:

  Pathetic...and I bet this academic institution charges families some $40,000 a year for their children to receive such twisted lessons in our constitution and civility.

• April 8, 2008

  10:53 a.m.

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  Faux_Noise writes:

  Is Due Process in which no penalty is imposed really punishment? Is that your argument Vince?

• April 8, 2008

  1:06 p.m.

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  notmlt writes:

  I am a student at CC and am disgusted with their handling of this issue. The fact that they have chosen to be selective in what they call free speech is absurd and frustrating. We are allowed to have completely naked pictures of students in the middle of our main building, but not the Monthly Bag? Pornstars visit our school to praise prostitution and show clips of their hardcore movies, but a poster describing a sexual position is banned? CC gives out free condoms about once a week which I find more offensive and stupid than either the Monthly Rag or Bag.

  To the students credit, though, most of us have been furious over the administrations actions. There have been several petitions supporting the "coalition of some dudes" in one way or another. Liberal or Conservative, most of the students believe in the first amendment.

  Sasquatch makes an excellent point by the way. Tuition is about 40,000 grand and some classes very much reflect the impression you get from this article. Most teachers are very fair , but radical liberal ideals have permeated nearly every facet of the school.

• April 8, 2008

  3:22 p.m.

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  Spencer writes:

  so their punishment was to be "interrogated"? Outrageous

• April 8, 2008

  7:37 p.m.

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  kathyM writes:

  Faux, If it's not punishment--Vince also said "intimidation"--then the Monthly Rag publishers should also have been grilled for hours about THEIR views on gender, class, sexism, etc. But they weren't, were they? No, they're the "offended victims." Riiiggghhht.

  Check out thefire.org to see how other colleges treat students and faculty who don't toe the PC line. One case in Florida: A student group was not allowed to show the film "The Passion of the Christ." However, the college allowed a live performance of a play called "F**king for Christ" (which included, yes, sex with Christ). That is the SAME kind of "fairness" and "protection from offense" committed at Colorado College.

• April 9, 2008

  9:05 a.m.

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  AngelontheSidelines writes:

  I feel victimized by Political Correctness!

• April 11, 2008

  8:29 p.m.

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  LFC writes:

  This is so bad I can't even comment on CC's ridiculous handling of this situation