Victory for Free Speech at Duke; Pro-Life Group's Rights Restored · 31 March 2010
"We are thankful that Duke acted quickly to
affirm its promises of free speech to its students, regardless of their
viewpoints," said FIRE Vice President Robert Shibley. "While this
exclusion never should have happened in the first place, we hope that
Duke and its Women's Center will now be more cognizant of their promises
to welcome differing points of view, protect free speech on campus, and
treat all students fairly and justly."
DSFL had reserved a Women's Center space for a
"Discussion with a Duke Mother" on March 18. A Duke student who has a
child was to speak about motherhood and the challenges of being in both
roles. The day before the event, the reservation was abruptly canceled
in a voicemail to the group. The next day, Duke Women's Center Gender
Violence Prevention Specialist Martin Liccardo said that because the
event was associated with the Week for Life and DSFL, the event could
not be held at the Women's Center because some students were upset about
the presence of a pro-life group. Michelle Barreto, president of DSFL,
turned to FIRE for help.
FIRE wrote Duke President Richard H. Brodhead
on March 26, asking him to respect Duke's promises of free speech and
noting that "if Duke intends to officially declare itself a pro-choice
university at which students who hold pro-life views are to be silenced
by university staff and centers," then Duke should warn students about
its stance before they choose to attend.
On Monday, FIRE issued
a press release
about DSFL's exclusion from the Women's Center, while Barreto explained
the situation in a simultaneous op-ed on the national politics website The
Daily Caller. The story was picked up by a wide variety of media
outlets, and public reaction was roundly negative.
Yesterday evening, Women's Center Director Ada
Gregory sent
a letter
apologizing to the students. Gregory acknowledged that "the Women's
Center is indeed intended to be a place that supports the agency and
choices of all women" and expressed her wish that DSFL members would
continue to use the Women's Center facilities.
"Like most private universities, Duke promises
its students and faculty a level of free speech and fair
treatment—regardless of viewpoint—in order to attract the best students
and faculty possible," said FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy
Will Creeley. "Too often, however, these promises are broken, as they
were this month at Duke. Fortunately, widespread attention to viewpoint
discrimination is a powerful corrective, and FIRE is glad that in this
instance, Duke has done the right thing."
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that
unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists,
and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological
spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of
expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s
colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on
campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.
CONTACT:
Robert Shibley, Vice President, FIRE:
215-717-3473; robert@thefire.org
Richard H. Brodhead, President, Duke
University: 919-684-2424; president@duke.edu
—
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