Campus Talk

Free speech is in crisis on America’s campuses. Rather than refute an idea with which he disagrees, today’s college student demands censorship. At the slightest hint of offense, the weak-willed administrator complies and disinvites a speaker while a close-minded protestor disrupts a lecture. This disturbing trend threatens the very purpose of education, to expose the mind to various points of view. The sad message today’s students learn: shouting delivers results. This short booklet offers a timeless defense of free expression, first authored at Yale University in 1975 and all too relevant in the current climate. Like many higher education institutions then and now, Yale had faced protest and censorship. In response to that free speech crisis, a faculty-student committee chaired by renowned historian C. Van Woodard composed the “Woodward Report.” Its wonderful prose boldly defends the right for all to “think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.” The Woodard Report is a model for all those who seek to stand up for the civil exchange of ideas and against the forces of censorship. In addition the Woodard Report itself, readers will find an introduction contextualizing the report’s history and exegesis of the text by Judge José A. Cabranes and Yale School Professor Kate Stith.

How to Talk About Hot Topics on Campus fills a gap in the student services and teaching and learning literature by providing a resource that shows how to construct and carry out difficult conversations from various vantage points in the academy. It offers a theory-to-practice model of conversation for the entire college campus that will enable all constituencies to engage in productive and civil dialogue on the most difficult and controversial social, religious, political, and cultural topics.

Comprehensive and accessible, this one-stop resource examines the history, development, and present state of free speech issues on college campuses, including a range of political perspectives and viewpoints. It explains such concepts and forces as academic freedom, intellectual benefits of open debate, using speech as a weapon of hate and harassment, and the history of campus social protest. It also presents a broad survey of the arguments and rhetoric-as well as actual record-of America's two major parties on campus free speech and academic freedom issues. Other focuses of coverage include major laws and commonly employed college and university policies governing free speech and civil liberties for students, faculty, and other employees on campuses and classrooms across the country. This book accomplishes all of the above via a combination of informative resources-tables, primary documents, biographical profiles, illuminating essays, a chronology, and more-that are the trademark of the Contemporary World Issues series.

Traditionally, the university or college is thought to be the ultimate location for the discovery and sharing of knowledge. After all, on these campuses are some of the great minds across all fields, as well as students who are not only eager to learn, but who often contribute to our shared wisdom. For those ideals to be achieved, however, ideas require access to some kind of virtual marketplace from which people can sample and consider them, discuss and debate them. Restricting the expression of those ideas for whatever reason is the enemy of not only this process, but also of knowledge discovery. Speech freedom on our college and university campuses, like everywhere else, is fragile. There are those who wish to suppress it, more often than not when the words express ideas, opinions, and even facts that conflict with their beliefs. Why is this effort, so completely at odds with the foundational values of this country, made? This topic explored in Speech Freedom on Campus: Past, Present and Future is multi-layered, and its analysis is best accomplished through multiple perspectives. Joseph Russomanno’s edited collection does precisely that, utilizing 10 different scholars to examine various aspects and issues related to speech freedom on campus.

If the University had a constitution, would it contain a free speech provision such as exists in the U.S. Constitution? The author develops in some detail the idea of the University as a special social institution that has as its goal the dissemination and advancement of knowledge.Free Speech on Campus examines the arguments, pro and con, concerning appropriate standards of discourse and expression that are particularly germane to the campus context, public or private, whether or not they are constitutionally enforceable. Students and teachers in every discipline will find this book engaging and illuminating; it is especially relevant for ethicists and philosophers of education.

Ban it! the initial arguments for campus speech codes -- Wayne dick's plea: the critics fight back -- See you in court: the campus hate speech cases -- Hostile environment takes a front seat -- The attack on hostile environment -- And the verdict is -- The debate: 1998-2008.

This unique study uncovers the lives and working conditions of a group of individuals who are usually rendered invisible on college campuses--the custodians who daily clean the offices, residence halls, bathrooms and public spaces. In doing so it also reveals universities’ equally invisible practices that frequently contradict their espoused values of inclusion and equity, and their profession that those on the margins are important members of the campus community.This vivid ethnography is the fruit of the year’s fieldwork that Peter Magolda’s undertook at two universities. His purpose was to shine a light on a subculture that neither decision-makers nor campus community members know very much about, let alone understand the motivations and aspirations of those who perform this work; and to pose fundamental questions about the moral implications of the corporatization of higher education and its impact on its lowest paid and most vulnerable employees.Working alongside and learning about the lives of over thirty janitorial staff, Peter Magolda becomes privy to acts of courage, resilience, and inspiration, as well as witness to their work ethic, and to instances of intolerance, inequity, and injustices. We learn the stories of remarkable people, and about their daily concerns, their fears and contributions.Peter Magolda raises such questions as: Does the academy still believe wisdom is exclusive to particular professions or classes of people? Are universities really inclusive? Is addressing service workers’ concerns part of the mission of higher education? If universities profess to value education, why make it difficult for those on the margins, such as custodians, to “get educated.”The book concludes with the research participants’ and the author’s reflections about ways that colleges can improve the lives of those whose underpaid and unremarked labor is so essential to the smooth running of their campuses.Appendices provide information about the research methodology and methods, as well as a discussion of the influence of corporate managerialism on ethnographic research.

Colleges and universities increasingly recruit international students yet may lack the systems to foster these students' academic success and identity as valued members of the campus community. Sharing case studies of students and examples of innovative initiatives, this book explores strategies and key recommendations for universities to re-conceptualize their programs to better welcome and support international students. Emphasizing the relational aspect of academic and campus life, the authors provide a framework that supports students from initial contact through graduation. Carefully researched and addressing issues of language, engagement, and culture, Creating a Culturally Inclusive Campus offers universities innovative strategies for helping all students fulfull their academic goals while also contributing meaningfully to their school’s global mission.