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New England campuses muzzle free speech
In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors ( Sweezy v. New Hampshire ), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom.

The 12th Annual Muzzle Awards. By Dan Kennedy.

In a 1957 Supreme Court decision upholding the free-speech rights of university professors (Sweezy v. New Hampshire), Justice Felix Frankfurter quoted prominent South African scholars on the importance of academic freedom. At the time, these professors were resisting their government's proposal to segregate students based on race: "It is the business of a university to provide that atmosphere which is most conducive to speculation, experiment, and creation."

Too bad contemporary American college administrators and faculty don't demonstrate as much support for free-speech rights in academia as did Apartheid-era Afrikaner professors. Perhaps a different definition of the "business of a university" is now the norm. As our New England–campus Muzzle muckraking shows, "speculation, experiment, and creation" couldn't possibly be the goal for administrators at these colleges and universities.

Mark-off the newsstands
In April, 23-year-old Boston University med student Philip Markoff — the so-called Craigslist Killer — made national headlines. The good folks at the BU admissions office were hoping prospective students would somehow not affiliate the alleged murderer with quotidian Terrier life. To that end, as the story unfolded, issues of the student-edited Daily Free Press — usually given prominence in the school's reception center — went mysteriously missing. An anonymous admissions-office employee told the Daily Free Press that the papers were purposely hidden "because of their content, which would reflect negatively on the school." Right. And suppressing the student voice looks great to prospective students.

Shooting the messenger
After MIT police officer Joseph D'Amelio was apprehended with more than 800 tablets containing the painkiller oxycodone, the Tech, MIT's student newspaper, naturally covered the drug-trafficking case. That didn't go over well with some other MIT boys in blue. On March 17, two officer colleagues of D'Amelio dumped 400 copies of The Tech into recycling bins (in 2009, at least we have environmentally conscious censors). In the school's defense, both officers were suspended without pay the next day, and MIT Police fired one of the officers in early April. Kudos to the scientists for protecting free speech against overbearing campus cops.

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Academic freedom goes down by technicality at BC
Bill Ayers clearly was not welcome at BC — in the flesh or via satellite.

Bill Ayers clearly was not welcome at BC — in the flesh or via satellite. As has been widely reported, Boston College administrators, citing a "concern for the safety and well-being of our students," canceled a March 30 lecture appearance by the '60s Weather Underground activist, education-reform scholar, and political lightning rod. What's less well known, however, is how the BC administration orchestrated the veto after giving him a green light to speak on campus.

When they invited Ayers to speak earlier in the year, student organizers had anticipated a controversy — not because of his proposed urban-education reform lecture, but because of his "domestic terrorist" label, fueled by the 2008 presidential campaign. To play it safe, they sought administrative approval for his appearance weeks in advance. BC officials told students that beefed-up security — including undercover cops — would be necessary, but that the show could go forward.

That all changed on Friday, March 27, just three days before Ayers's scheduled appearance, when administrators dropped the ax.

Mustering the dupes
The brouhaha began when WTKK-FM (96.9) radio host Michael Graham — Boston's maestro of conservative controversies — slammed BC for hosting this "friend of the cop killers."

BC spokesman Jack Dunn, in a March 27 interview with Graham, said: "We hope the students who invited him will make the right decision, but if they don't, the administration will allow the [Ayers speech] to take place." Graham posted this quote, as well as the contact information for BC's president, directors of student affairs, and campus ministry, on his Web site.

What happened next is widely disputed, but one fact is certain: hours after Dunn's interview on WTKK, the event was canceled.

Some students and faculty suggest that wealthy BC alumni, spurred by Graham's rhetoric, threatened to withdraw donations — a claim that BC vehemently denies. Dunn told the Phoenix that the sole motivating factor was to ensure student safety "in light of an emotionally charged protest from the community." (Attempts by the Phoenix to contact decision-making administrators directly were ignored.)

Even if one takes BC at its word about the lack of donor threats, though, a picture emerges of backdoor maneuvering by the administration to exempt the event from the school's stated policy of total academic freedom for faculty. (Regardless of whether student safety was a legitimate concern, faculty sponsorship should have allowed Ayers's lecture to proceed, according to BC policy.)

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