The recent blockage of a national online campus gossip forum by Tennessee State University has sparked questions over students’ free speech rights.
The forum, JuicyCampus.com, is an entertainment website where students can anonymously voice opinions they deem most interesting in the manner they think is most appropriate, according to Matt Ivester, CEO and president of JuicyCampus.com.
On Monday, TSU Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Freeman wrote a letter in the university’s student newspaper stating the campus would no longer permit access to the site.
According to Cheryl Bates-Lee, TSU director of media relations, Freeman decided to block the site from students on the university’s network after he received a complaint from a parent claiming a student was attacked on the site in a “hostile” manner and that they were concerned for her welfare.
Bates-Lee added she wanted to make it clear the site was not banned but rather blocked from students accessing it while on campus, in classrooms or in dorm rooms.
“If they are using any other system, say they have a broadband card or they can access it via their cell phone, then they will have the opportunity to use it,” Bates-Lee said.
Ivester said no matter what TSU decides to call the debacle, it comes down to a fundamental violation of students’ free speech rights.
“Call it a block, call it a ban, it’s all just different ways of saying they’re not allowing students to visit this website,” Ivester said. “They are trying to control information, and at an institution of higher education, for that to be happening, it’s just abhorrent and insulting to students.”
According to Ivester, there are three types of posts the site will remove: spam, illegal hate speech and those including contact information. Ivester said the content that caused TSU to block the site did not fulfill any of the three post-type specifications.
“I think what TSU was reacting to was not a campus safety issue,” Ivester said. “We haven’t heard anything from campus police. What they were reacting to was a couple of students getting their feelings hurt. And TSU was willing to sacrifice students’ freedom of speech rights to help.”
Donald Downs, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, said while the issue is almost clearly a case of a violation of free speech principles, it may not necessarily be a legal violation of the students’ First Amendment rights.
Downs said the university may have overreacted to the issue by shutting down the site to everyone rather than pinpointing who attacked the student, but a court could determine it was the university’s right to do so because they own the network system.
“It is a very gray area,” Downs said. “It is arguable that simply shutting off access to a network through the university system is something they can do if they are concerned about some sort of legal action against them. But if they are doing it because they simply don’t like what is being said, then that is going to be more of a problem.”
UW spokesperson John Lucas said UW has reviewed some of the site in recent months and is aware of the comments posted.
“We’ve looked at it, but in terms of restricting content, that’s not really something that we do at UW,” Lucas said. “First off, I don’t know if it’s technically feasible, and then from a philosophical standpoint, I don’t think we have ever taken a step like that, nor would we.”
