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January 27, 2006 Jacksonville, A Freedom ENC Property

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more What's New SEARCH Are colleges trying to be too nice? More... 2005 Top Read Stories & Photo Go! January 24,2006 Beauty contestant should Album Advanced BY BARRY SMITH move up The Daily News more FREEDOM NEWS SERVICE Sense of direction Publisher's blog LETTERS TO THE SECTIONS Homeplace Real RALEIGH - Can niceness be codified? Can you actually EDITOR Estate Magazine Home make a policy requiring politeness and only politeness? A new era begins at Camp Chris Miller's Blog Local News Lejeune Paul Thompson's Apparently a number of colleges and universities across LETTERS TO THE Blog Nation/World the nation, including some in North Carolina, think you EDITOR Local Sports can. National sports EMERCIALS The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an Last seven days Spotlight On: NASCAR organization monitoring First Amendment practices on Today Liberty News college campuses throughout the nation, believes that a Thursday • Local Businesses Opinion number of the state's public universities go overboard in Wednesday • Real Estate Tuesday Business trying to mandate niceness. In fact, a report that FIRE Monday • Auto Dealers recently issued says that policies at many schools in the • Classifieds Columns University of North Carolina system are overbroad and Sunday Listen Up! likely unconstitutional. Saturday Click here for Neighbors Coupon Wrap "Disproportionately, we are finding serious abuses of free More by date Education speech in North Carolina," Greg Lukianoff, FIRE's interim Visions president, said during a press conference the other day. 01/27/2006 Go! OF INTEREST Lukianoff cited as an example a previous Real Estate A Year Ago Today Magazine "nondiscrimination" policy at UNC-Chapel Hill which led to a Christian fraternity losing its campus recognition Exposure to arts enriches Newcomers' Guide because, well, it required its members to be Christians. education LETTERS TO THE Readers Choice The policy, Lukianoff said, violated the fraternity's freedom EDITOR 50th Anniversary of association - the freedom to associate with people of like beliefs. Area Briefs Story Statistics Happenings Plus, such a policy comes up short in the common-sense Outdoors department. Emailed Viewed Fishing Report The campus has since changed its policy to allow for a Max Magazine "commitment to a set of beliefs." Blotters (more) Most of the problems cited by FIRE have to do with Obituaries speech codes and nondiscrimination policies. Weddings For example, the FIRE report cites a policy at UNC-Greensboro that says it will not TV Listings tolerate "any harassment of, discrimination against, or disrespect of persons." Local Movies INTERACT Huh? Does not tolerating "disrespect of persons" mean that you have to say "yes Calendar ma'am" and "no sir" every time you respond to a professor? Or for that matter, would that be required every time a student responded to a roommate's question? Virtual Fence You Report It The report also cites a N.C. Central University policy which prohibits employees and Message Board students from downloading "offensive or derogatory material from the Internet."

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STAFF BLOGS The university, as a state entity, is constitutionally allowed to prohibit the use of its Elliott Potter computers for downloading hardcore pornography, the report says. But, the report goes on, the state cannot ban communication "simply because someone finds it offensive or Chris Miller derogatory." Paul Thompson Timmi Toler Lukianoff urged the universities to take a good, hard look at their policies, adding that ENC GUIDES the campuses would likely lose in court if anyone ever chose to sue them. encMarketPlace The greater problem, however, isn't that the university could be setting itself up for a encMedical lawsuit. As Lukianoff points out, the real problem is the chilling effect that these policies encNASCAR have on free speech, freedom of expression and freedom of association. encBrides And colleges and universities are supposed to be places that encourage, not encCelebrates discourage, ideas. encOutdoors Barry Smith writes for Freedom Communications Inc.'s Raleigh bureau. He can be encNIE reached at [email protected]. encYellowPages encWorship Email This Page encDining There are 182 people currently Your Name: encCoupons viewing NC FREEDOM Send To (email): Jacksonville Daily Check E-Mail News Submit Account Info. 36,410 articles online. About CLASSIFIEDS encClassifieds NC About Respond To the Editor Email Jobs: Jacksonville Freedom Account Jobs: New Bern How would you rate this story? Select One 6 Jobs: Kinston YOU ANSWER IT encHomefinder Our staff appreciates your comments on our coverage. Due to the number of comments received, we cannot respond to comments individually. Q: Should Google encCarfinder cooperate with the encJobfinder Bush administration and turn over Submit an Ad information that ABOUT US Comments (sent only to Editors): customers have Our Staff been looking up online? Subscribe Search Articles Yes nmlkj RSS Feeds No nmlkj Printable Forms Advertise With Us Vote Mission Statement SITES TO SEE Top Emailed Storie Camp Lejeune Cherry Point None for today. Tricare Online II MEF Top Viewed Stories 26th MEU None for today. 24th MEU

22nd MEU Event Calendar SpinNC.org January 2006 More Local SMTWTFS SPECIAL If you would like your comments published as a Letter to the Editor then please fill in 1234567 COVERAGE the fields below. This information is needed in order to verify your comments if they are The New Iraq 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 published. The name and the city in which you live would be the only thing published 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Draft Constitution with your letter. All fields are required. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Virtual Fence 29 30 31 U.S. Casualties Name Address Today's Events

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