Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean—both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates—argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the importance of free speech on campus and offers clear prescriptions for what colleges can and can’t do when dealing with free speech controversies.

Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment?

Traditionally, the university or college is thought to be the ultimate location for the discovery and sharing of knowledge. After all, on these campuses are some of the great minds across all fields, as well as students who are not only eager to learn, but who often contribute to our shared wisdom. For those ideals to be achieved, however, ideas require access to some kind of virtual marketplace from which people can sample and consider them, discuss and debate them. Restricting the expression of those ideas for whatever reason is the enemy of not only this process, but also of knowledge discovery. Speech freedom on our college and university campuses, like everywhere else, is fragile. There are those who wish to suppress it, more often than not when the words express ideas, opinions, and even facts that conflict with their beliefs. Why is this effort, so completely at odds with the foundational values of this country, made? This topic explored in Speech Freedom on Campus: Past, Present and Future is multi-layered, and its analysis is best accomplished through multiple perspectives. Joseph Russomanno’s edited collection does precisely that, utilizing 10 different scholars to examine various aspects and issues related to speech freedom on campus.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental aspect of American democracy, and university campuses have historically been central to the free speech debate through serving as protectors of this constitutional right. In recent years, campuses have returned to the center of this debate as our notion of what kinds of speech are acceptable and how speech should be controlled continues to develop. With the rise of trigger warnings, designated free-speech zones, and controversial speakers being disinvited from lecturing at universities, the question of whether campuses continue to represent the future of free speech or symbolize its repression has become progressively urgent.

"This is an engaging and highly readable discussion of the intricacies of First Amendment jurisprudence as it is applied to the college campus." -- The Law and Politics Book Review "Lucidly written, the book can be read and understood by many audiences from student organizations to board members.... Essential for all college and university libraries." -- Choice "A pragmatic, libertarian-minded, and well-informed legal handbook for the First Amendment on campus..." -- Kirkus Reviews "... the most comprehensive and thorough examination of campus speech available today." -- Harvard Educational Review "Bob O'Neil has produced the seminal work on First Amendment freedoms on our university campuses. He has brought scolarship, clear thinking and clean prose to a book of critical importance to all of us." -- Bruce W. Sanford "Robert O'Neil has long been one of the brightest stars in the complex and controversial arena of freedom of expression. And he has never shined brighter and with more incisive clarity than with his new work, Free Speech in the College Community." -- Richar A. Roth, Trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Freedom of Expression "This is the first integrated discussion of the fascinating free speech issues that pertain to teachers and students. It is an unusually informative, vivid and balanced treatment and an absolute must read for all academics and students." -- Norman Dorsen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union "Free Speech in the College Community is a very timely book written by a dedicated scholar of the First Amendment. Challenging and readable it should be studied by all academicians, students, legislators and lawyers." -- Nancy Kassebaum Baker, United States Senator (retired) All of today's "hot-button" issues are dealt with in this timely book, from Holocaust denial to claims of racial determination of intelligence to hate speech. Former college president Robert O'Neil dramatically illustrates the many types of problems that confront university administrators, frequently using representative fictional characters and discourse to present the situations. Free Speech in the College Community illustrates the many problems that now confront universities by questioning whether or not speech on campus should be freer than speech on the streets. Join the Web debate about free speech on campus: http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress/freespeech