Penn State: Pulling the Wool over Your Eyes

- What We Do
- What we defend
- Have your rights been violated?
  If you face retaliation over protected speech, reach out to ��ֱ�� to learn more about how we can protect your rights.
  Submit a Case
- Make a difference
- Subscribe to ��ֱ�� Updates
  Subscribe to receive emails and texts about ��ֱ��'s work and upcoming events.
  Subscribe
- Take Action
  Across the nation, free speech rights are under attack. Join us in defending this essential quality of liberty. Make your voice heard and join a campaign.
  Protect Free Speech
- Resources
- College Free Speech Rankings
  Presented by ��ֱ�� and College Pulse, the 2025 College Free Speech Rankings is the largest survey of campus free expression ever performed.
  Explore Rankings
- National Speech Index
  The National Speech Index is a new quarterly component of America’s Political Pulse, an ongoing weekly survey that will allow researchers to track shifting free speech sentiment in America over time.
  Learn More
Colleges
News
Cases
About Us
Submit a Case

Penn State: Pulling the Wool over Your Eyes

Sean Clark

May 25, 2006

Today, in , Penn State attempted to play damage control after significantly altering two patently unconstitutional policies. In what is probably the lamest justification for doing so, the Penn State tried to claim that, “These changes do appear to match up well with the interests of the plaintiff…but the revision would have been made in this manner regardless of any legal action.”

So the fact that Penn State was sued in federal court had absolutely nothing to do with an abrupt alteration in policies? Next time, Penn State might want to make sure that the revision history of and matches their story. The truth is that these polices have been around, in substantially the same form, since the early 1990s. This makes it extraordinarily hard to believe that the changes were merely routine revisions; if so, why did it take more then a decade to change the policies? It isn’t very hard to see through Penn State’s apparent ruse.

Would it really be so difficult for Penn State to just say, “We recognize that we have a legal and moral right to ensure a free exchange of ideas on campus, so we altered the policies accordingly”?