College students have a widespread history of exercising their rights to free speech through protest as a means of expressing displeasure with the status quo. While some administrators consider it a disruption to academic learning on college campuses, extensive research has found that student activism as a form of involvement on campus lends…

This paper focuses on how undergraduate students on five public university campuses perceived and reacted to religious coercion. We identified three sources of coercion: (a) public proselytizers, (b) peers, and (c) academic faculty whose expression of beliefs was perceived as implicitly coercive by students who often connected religious beliefs to…

Heated battles over free speech have erupted on college campuses across the United States in recent months. Some of the most prominent incidents involve efforts by students to prevent public appearances by speakers espousing controversial viewpoints. Efforts to silence offensive speakers on college campuses are not new; in these endeavors, one can…

Reviews 1995 court decisions concerning free speech in colleges and universities, focusing on the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment (educator speech, campus speech regulations, speech in public forum), religion clauses (Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause) and statutes (Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Equal Access Act). Concludes…

A number of small, private, liberal arts colleges have abolished Greek systems on campus and vowed to quash student attempts to establish off-campus fraternities and sororities. Some argue that a ban on fraternities denies students their constitutional right to freedom of association. A nonbinding resolution recently passed in Congress may support…

A University of Michigan policy barred harassment or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, handicapped, or Vietnam-veteran status. It was declared unconstitutional because it violated First Amendment rights. University officials may rewrite policy or…

Examines the issue of a professor's First Amendment right to academic freedom vs. a student's right to an effective learning environment free from sexual harassment in a 1996 case, Cohen vs. San Bernardino Valley College. Also explored is the right of a public employee to free speech. Recommendations are offered to college administrators on…