The University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill - 3032 Words

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opened in 1795 as the first public college in the United States. Since then, free speech and the formation of independent ideas and opinions have been seen as integral parts of a student’s educational experience. Unfortunately, through the categorization of public college campuses as designated public forums and the implementation of restrictive student conduct codes and debilitating free speech zones, universities are denying students the expression they deserve. While these policies were originally created to protect students, they are now leading to a rising number of student tensions, lawsuits, and constitutional arguments. Every university is unique in its ability to define campus†¦show more content†¦The Fourteenth Amendment extended this citizen protection to state law by affirming, â€Å"no state shall†¦abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States† (US Const, Amend XIV, §1). While the Fourteenth Amendment’s extension of its protection to state law and the right to free speech are seemingly straightforward, they have proven difficult for courts of law to manage. Free speech has not been given a true legal definition and, as will be discussed in the following paragraph, is more accurately defined by its boundaries and limitations. Courts have struggled for the past century to determine what speech is protected under the First Amendment. Rather than identifying every one of those rights, the Supreme Court ruled the types of speech that are considered unlawful. These include fighting words (which provoke violence), any speech that shows a clear and present danger to the government (such as terrorist threats), and perhaps most importantly hate speech (Langhauser). Hate speech is a slightly more controversial issue because of its overall loose definition. Hate speech is often defined as statements â€Å"offending any group based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation† (American Bar Association). However, many times courts have found that the simple utterance of hate speech is protected, while the