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Poster Wars
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Campus Ethics
When Is Speech Offensive?
Programs for Faculty and Staff
Miriam Schulman
Programs for Students
Mary lives in a college dorm and displays a
poster on her door with the text of
California Proposition 8: “Only marriage
between a man and a woman is valid or BIG Q TOPICS OF DISCUSSION
recognized in California.” She supported
Academic Integrity
the successful “Yes on 8” campaign.  A
constitutional challenge to the proposition Alcohol and Drugs
is now working its way through the courts, Dating and Sexuality
and Mary is involved in the effort to prevent
Diversity
the proposition from being declared
unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Family
Court. Friendship and Roommates

James, her dorm neighbor, finds this poster offensive and demands Mary take it down. He The Greek System
worked to defeat the measure, which he feels is homophobic and discriminatory. To Mary, Social Media
the poster is an expression of her beliefs and identity, and she does not think she should
Beyond the Campus
have to remove it.
 
What should happen now?

Here are some resources from different perspectives that might help you decide:

A Framework for Ethical Decision Making 

Student Speech: ACLU 

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) 

Responding to Bigotry and Intergroup Strife on Campus: Anti-Defamation League

Photo by Dana Rocks available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial

License.

Mar 28, 2011

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