Are Universities Schools? The Case for Continuity in the Regulation of Student Speech

Abstract

Are universities schools? The question seems almost silly to ask: of course universities are schools. They have teachers and students, like schools. They have grades, like schools. There are classes and extracurricular activities, also like schools. But recent writings on the issue of free speech on campus" have raised the improbable specter that universities are less educational institutions than they are public forums like parks and sidewalks, where a free-wheeling exchange of ideas and opinions takes place, unrestricted by any sense of academic mission or school discipline. Some of this rhetoric is of course exaggerated, and some of it can be taken out of context. Nonetheless, the overall impression is that public universities are required to host and accommodate all viewpoints, no matter how loathsome, and protect any expression in any place and at any time or else risk running afoul of the First Amendment.