Thursday, January 27, 2005

"Don't be jealous that I was chatting online with babes all day."

Another interesting thing I learned in Core 10 today:

When we agreed to become students of Saint Joseph's College, we signed away our right to free speech. Because SJC is not a government facility but instead a private institution, the way I understand it is that they can essentially write their own rules. Ethical standards apply, of course, but technically they are free from government standards.

I kind of felt like a traitor to my generation when Bro. Rob told us this today. I glanced around the room and saw incredulous stares from my classmates, while I sat motionless and simply took in what he said. The way I see it, all this essentially means is that if the leader of the KKK was a student here and wanted to hold a KKK rally on campus, the college could legally prohibit him from doing that without technically infringing on any of his rights. That seems like common sense to me. We still have our "freedom of speech" in aspects that most of us are interested in, such as holding Right to Life vigils, inviting somewhat-controversial speakers to appear on campus, speaking openly of taboo subjects, and using prayer as a method of bonding. Most of us aren't leaders of the KKK and aren't going to plan such a hugely controversial event such as an all-campus discrimination rally.

I don't know... I guess this post really has no point. I guess I was just surprised at the surprise other people showed after hearing that statement. Maybe if they would have held their reactions until after they could logically think about the thing to which they were reacting, I wouldn't be writing this.

But, alas, they did not stifle their reactions and I did write this post. And you are now two minutes older and probably a lot bored-er :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does this mean that they could prohibit pro-choice speakers or gay rights activists?

I have to say I'm not surprised, but I'm a bit more saddened about this place.

--Danny