The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education has issued a landmark letter of clarification that deals a powerful blow to administrative censors on America’s college and university campuses.
A July 28 letter from Gerald A. Reynolds, assistant secretary of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Education, was sent to colleges and universities across the country. Reynolds writes, “No OCR regulation should be interpreted to impinge upon rights protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or to require recipients to enact or enforce codes that punish the exercise of such rights.”
The “University of Virginia’s Policy on Discriminatory Harassment” prevents members of the University community from: “Directing racial or ethnic slurs at someone,” “telling persons they are too old to understand new technology,” “teasing or mocking a person with a disability,” “ridiculing a person’s religious beliefs,” “persisting in requests for dates after being told they are unwelcome” and “sending unwelcome e-mail containing sexual jokes.” Under these policies, UVA would outlaw Richard Pryor, Eminem, and Voltaire’s presence on grounds.
For these reasons, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights directed its most recent admonition against these untenable policies on all campuses. The OCR recognizes the pervasiveness of this problem. Public universities are bound by the Constitution and federal law. Private universities variably promise free speech and academic freedom and should uphold those promises.

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