Rutgers removes 'free' speech warning
Rutgers has now removed the warning from its page.
The school's Bias Prevention and Education Committee's webpage told students that there was no such thing as "free" speech.
Rutgers University has removed its warning to students that “[t]here’s no such thing as free speech.”
Last Friday, Campus Reform reported that the webpage for the public university’s Bias Prevention and Education Committee appeared to deny the existence of free speech as part of its campaign to combat “bias acts” on campus.
Shortly after Campus Reform’s story, the university removed the statement from its website.
The statement was a part of the Bias Prevention and Education Committee’s list on five ways to avoid committing “bias incidents” and was listed under the command “Think Before You Speak.”
The rest of the list however, remains on the website. One way for students to avoid committing “bias incidents,” the university says, is to “[l]ose stereotypes about any group,” and the school warns students that “[t[here is no such thing as a ‘positive’ stereotype.”
“All stereotypes are inherently negative, hurtful, and damaging,” the page says.
The university also commands students who want to avoid committing bias incidents to join “activities, programs, courses, and practices that promote diversity and social justice.”
Rutgers students can anonymously report their peers and professors if they believe they have experienced or witnessed a “bias incident.”
The Bias Prevention and Education Committee, according to the university, is a “two-tiered body comprised of the Deans of Students Bias Response Team and the Bias Prevention Education Advisory Panel working in concert to MONITOR, PREVENT, REPORT, RESPOND, and RESTORE environments in the aftermath of BIAS INCIDENTS.”
Rutgers University did not respond to a request for comment.
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