TRUE FACT: The Tennessee state legislature has proposed a ban on “staging walkouts” during presentations by speakers at public universities. The bill awaits Governor Bill Lee’s signature (Chronicle of Higher Education, April 17th online).
Not surprisingly, the proposal has generated controversy, but this wouldn’t be the first time that constraints have been placed on audiences at institutions of higher education around the country. Consider the following:
— At DePaul University in Chicago, students can be disciplined for having “impure thoughts” while observing panel discussions. According to DePaul President Robert L. Manuel, “far too many of our students were imagining that the panelists were naked and doing weird stuff on the stage. That’s not okay.”
— At Harvard Divinity School, disgruntled students are not allowed to ask a speaker, “Is it true that you are a demon child born out of wedlock to Satan and a rabid Rottweiler?” Notes Marla Frederick, Dean of the School: “You can’t say that even if it’s true.”
— At the University of Charleston, a bored member of the audience can’t start humming like a mosquito and then slap the bare neck of the person sitting in front of them. Charleston President Marty Roth acknowledges that “it’s actually a pretty funny stunt, but it’s still wrong.”
— On the campus of Boston College, a student can be suspended for urging the congregation to sing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” during Mass. And if that student succeeds in getting people to stand up, raise their arms, and perform The Wave during Communion, he or she will be expelled.
— Any cadet at the U. S. Military Academy (West Point) who crunches loudly on a corn chip during assembly will be removed and shot. “Discipline begins at home,” says Lieutenant General Steven Gilland, Superintendent of the Academy,
Governor Lee? The ball — and bill — is in your court.
