(Jonathan Drake/Reuters)

Freedom of speech is under fire on many American college campuses, but a case could be made that no school is more hostile than City University of New York (CUNY).

In today’s Martin Center article, Professor David Seidemann, who has been on the CUNY faculty since 1975, writes about the problem of speech suppression at his institution. Going back to the 1990s, administrators and (more recently) students have tried to silence unwanted voices and criticism.


For example, the administration targets pro-Israel students for sanctions based on false reports that they were “disruptive.” Evidence clearly disproved the charges. Seidemann writes,“The college had violated the students’ rights by removing them without cause and had defamed them with false accusations.”

In another instance, the school removed posters placed by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, attacking specific CUNY faculty members as “terrorist supporters” for their advocacy of a Gaza government led by Hamas. Such posters are constitutionally protected speech, but CUNY president Michelle Anderson had the posters removed, claiming they interfered with the students’ right to “an atmosphere free from hate and intimidation.”

That’s not consistent with the First Amendment. Seidemann asks:

If CUNY administrators repeatedly and willfully violate First Amendment rights, is it any surprise that CUNY students fail to grasp the value of free speech and the legal protection that it is afforded?

Seidemann closes his piece with the remarkably nasty attack on Professor Michael Goldstein, who incurred the wrath of some students and fellow faculty members for a Facebook post in which he wrote, “Which Christian or Jew plowed their van into 20 people in London?” They demanded his firing and have kept up a vicious campaign against Goldstein for ten months. At least, the administration has not bowed to the pressure to get rid of him and even installed security cameras outside his office.

Seidemann makes a plea for colleges to adopt the University of Chicago standards for free speech and educate students on their importance as a means of countering the growing trend of speech suppression on our campuses.

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