Free speech at UC Irvine

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AS YOU KNOW, the benighted campuses of the SOCCCD have been a battleground over “free speech” since 1997. Ten years ago, then-President of IVC, Raghu P. Mathur, violated the speech rights of students who sought to protest, peacefully, against policies and actions that, in their view, threatened the college’s accreditation rating. Not long after that, then-trustee Steven J. Frogue was pressured to abandon his planned (and colleague-approved) “forum” on the Warren Commission, which involved a group of speakers, including some associated with a notorious anti-Semitic organization (Liberty Lobby). Early in 1999, I, Chunk, was forced to take the district to federal court when Mathur and the district violated my First Amendment rights re Dissent. (Read all about these episodes in our archives.)

Nowadays, the focus is on UC Irvine, just a couple of miles up the road from IVC.

From this morning’s LA Times: Harsh speech called free speech at UC Irvine:

Facing a polite but skeptical Jewish audience, UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake walked a tightrope Wednesday as he tried to explain that campus events seen by some as anti-Semitic are actually expressions of constitutionally protected free speech.

Drake met with more than 600 members of the county's Jewish community who expressed concern about what they perceived as anti-Semitic activity on campus, much of it involving Muslim students. The town hall meeting — organized by the Jewish Federation of Orange County, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee — was held at the Shir Ha Ma'alot synagogue in Irvine.

UCI has become a flashpoint in the national Israeli-Arab debate that has created hard feelings between Muslims and Jews. This month, Muslim students on campus sponsored a presentation, "Israel: Apartheid Resurrected," protesting that country's policies toward Palestinians.

…On Wednesday, Drake heard complaints that Jewish students were afraid to be on campus and was challenged repeatedly to draw a line between free speech and hate speech. But he said it was an impractical and impossible assignment.

"Free speech means simply that: free speech," he told one questioner.

To another, he said: "Speech is protected. It can be hateful. It can be wrong. It can be vile." Unlike speech, he added, violent acts are not protected.

…Earlier, UCI students and professors formed a Human Circle of Tolerance, had sung "All You Need is Love" and released 20 doves. The students included Jews, Muslims and Christians….

The OC Register (UCI chief meets with Jewish groups) reported the following Q & A:

Why is it that you personally don't exercise your right to free speech and speak directly to statements made on campus?

[Drake:] "We have 1,000 guest speakers on campus every year. Could I evaluate them and say this one is anti-Semitic? I could not. What I could say is that as a person and a campus, we abhor hate speech, period."

Right now, my kids don't want to go to your school. With the activity on campus, why should my kids go to your school?

"It's an outstanding educational institutional [sic]. If you talk to our students, they will tell you how much they love their experience here. (These incidents) are not every other day. It's a couple of times a year. And they're from people coming from off campus. It just got more media attention."

Is there a place on campus that does not tolerate anti-group speech on campus?

"There are 26,000 students on campus. I want every student on campus to know that this is their home. I want them to feel secure, and feel that is their home."