{"id":2184,"date":"2020-01-03T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T17:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=2184"},"modified":"2020-01-02T16:37:08","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T23:37:08","slug":"free-speech-is-not-being-protected-in-our-local-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegonewsdesk.com\/?p=2184","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech is not being Protected in our Local Universities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Michael Palomba<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Free speech is under attack throughout the United States, and San Diego is no exception. The <\/span>Foundation for Individual Rights in Education<\/span><\/a> (FIRE) flagged three major universities in San Diego with \u201cyellow light\u201d ratings. A \u201cyellow light\u201d rating means \u201cat least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application\u201d is in place.<\/span><\/p>\n

The three universities that have been flagged are San Diego State University, University of California San Diego, and California State University San Marcos.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a San Diego State Student, this is a topic that affects me personally.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2017, my first year at SDSU, a Milo Yiannopoulos event that had been scheduled for October was cancelled. SDSU claimed it would be unable to provide adequate security with its “current resources.” The event was being sponsored by the College Republicans group who described the unexpected cancellation as \u201chighly suspicious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brandon Jones, the president of the College Republicans at the time, released a statement following the abrupt cancellation:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning I had my fourth meeting in as many weeks with San Diego State University leadership in regards to planning an event to bring conservative speaker Milo Yiannopoulos to Montezuma Hall on October 29th at 9pm. This morning\u2019s agenda was supposed to consist of a quote outlining security costs from Chief Mays,\u201d he continued. \u201cInstead, we were blindsided by university leadership with the cancelation of our event.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SDSU chief of police Josh Mays told the group that public safety officers \u201cwould need over six hours and 20 bomb-sniffing dogs to secure the 200,000 square foot venue,\u201d a task deemed \u201cnot doable with their current resources.\u201d According to someone familiar with the situation, there are not even that many bomb-sniffing dogs in all of San Diego County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coincidentally, it was discovered that an email from a group opposing the event was received by student leaders shortly before the Yiannopoulos event was canceled.<\/span><\/p>\n

An email was intercepted by the College Republicans from a student leader<\/span> revealing that \u201cDr. Randy Timm of Student Life and Leadership and Edwin Darrell of the Center for Intercultural Relations have both expressed that they are willing to support however they can to make this event a reality.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Jones said, \u201cThe College Republicans had already had multiple meetings about security with the campus police, including with a police lieutenant as recently as September 29, so the sudden decision to claim \u2018lack of resources\u2019 for an event that has been planned since May is highly suspicious and suggests this is another example of bureaucratic censorship and stonewalling by a left-wing campus administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Attempts to limit free speech are becoming more and more frequent throughout the U.S. and around the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Germany Chancellor Angela<\/span> Merkel, made a statement that echoes what we see happening in the United States. A rise of the idea that speech, in and of itself, can be harmful.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Angela Merkel wants to curtail freedom of speech in accordance with what she decides is "hateful". A reminder that anti-Semitic hate speech was already illegal pre-WW2. Banning speech is at best ineffective and at worse counter-productive pic.twitter.com\/2ay4L9oGc3<\/a><\/p>\n

— Stephen Knight \ud83c\udf99\ufe0f (@GSpellchecker) November 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n