Although I would describe my adolescent self as too shy to dream of uttering a controversial phrase, as a teenager I was obsessed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, particularly the section that prohibits Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
As an experiment early in my senior year of high school, I quizzed my classmates on the contents of the amendment. I videotaped their responses and showed a selection of answers during an assembly.
I was frustrated to find that many of my fellow students did not know which amendment guaranteed free speech and few could come close to quoting it. Somehow this game of semantics seemed to be a critical component in my quest to enlighten someone. Anyone, really.
Truth be told, however, just four years after my arguably unjust experiment I had to Google the First Amendment to be sure of the phrasing. As a no-longer-shy college student and a former Daily Pennsylvanian managing editor, my relationship with the issue of free speech has become more nuanced but less passionately urgent.
But my enthusiasm was renewed when I learned that an article from The Huffington Post ranked the University of Pennsylvania among the seven-best colleges in the nation for freedom of speech. Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, compiled the list last month and introduced his criteria.
He wrote that the schools listed must have policies that “at least nominally protect speech that would be protected by the First Amendment--and that have not committed a serious incident of censorship (that we know about) for at least several years.”
Anecdotally my experience tells me that Penn fits these rather vague criteria. Students, student-journalists and University powers-that-be do not always see eye to eye. Students say too much. Administrators say too little. And journalists can never satisfy everybody. All in all, however, speech is protected and rights are maintained.
When I joined the DP as a freshman I found a group of passionate individuals willing to fight for free speech — whether theirs had ever been challenged or not. In my many debates around campus about what content this and other newspapers should print, the responses were almost universally thoughtful even on occasions when the reasons for the meeting had been less friendly. All the ethical sensibility that surrounded me allowed me to live in quiet oblivion.
During my time as an editor I received weekly press releases from FIRE. Most of the time they were barely skimmed before being relegated to my mountainous pile of junk mail and recycled.
On my worst days the releases struck me as glorified sob stories. They seemed to have no relation to my busy life as an editor of a financially and editorially independent newspaper serving a relatively progressive school.
Despite Penn’s success, I was troubled by the notion that only seven schools were deserving of such an honor. The treatment I received never struck me as extraordinary. Why should any student expect less than their basic rights? I was further appalled to find that 12 schools made up a worst-for-free-speech list compiled by the same group earlier this year.
It took a systematically flawed list to get me to pay attention to a problem that has been staring me in the face for years. When presented plainly the scope of the problem becomes much clearer.
The headlines of FIRE’s most press releases — such as “College Forbids Student to Walk at Graduation Due to ‘Negative’ Facebook Post” and “Wesleyan University Partially Restores Freedom of Association, But Continues to Discriminate Against Greek Organizations” — have renewed relevance. Now, I can’t help but find myself wondering if my reductive high-school investigation was so far off.
Perhaps the key to creating the possibility of change is finding simple ways to present the fundamental truths of an issue, the facts it is so easy to take for granted. Next time you feel compelled to shout an obscenity on College Green go for it knowing you will not be punished, but be sure to make it known that not all students would be so lucky.
Samantha Sharf is a rising College senior and a former Daily Pennsylvanian managing editor from Old Brookville, N.Y. Her email address is samsharf@sas.upenn.edu.
