The Cal Poly College Republicans got the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) involved. Eventually, the university reinstated Hinkle and withdrew the charges, and paid him a settlement of $40,000—even though they refused to acknowledge being in the wrong.

The UT incident was the most disturbing to me. On a campus where an entire fraternity had been suspended a few months before, following an off-campus Halloween party which five of their members had attended dressed as the "Jackson 5," a violent example of hate speech went unpunished because it was aimed at a conservative. Sukhmani Singh Khalsi had written a criticism of the liberal-leaning Student Issues committee. The committee hires speakers for the campus using student fees, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth; Kalsi claimed the speakers were never even centrist, let alone conservative.

Following publication of his complaint, a series of eMail messages was sent to all members of the committee (including one inactive conservative member, who shared the content with Khalsi). The most egregious was from a student member, who suggested that recipients "just shoot these [effing] ragheads in the face". Faculty advisors urged the Sikh, who wears a turban and beard but is not a Muslim, to treat this as a serious threat. However, the author of the eMail was not even reprimanded, let alone suspended. Contrast this with the fate of an entire fraternity over extramural costumes chosen by five of them!

The message of this short (46 min. run time) commentary film is clear: if (as a student) you feel you have been unfairly treated by your college or university due to a similar unfair application of speech codes (regardless of your position on the political spectrum), contact FIRE. Conservative students may also wish to contact the Academic Bias blog.

In the process of collecting links for this post, I tripped over Fellowship 9/11, "One of the shortest and least expensive films of the year," in which Michael Moore "...with his characteristic humor and dogged commitment to uncovering - or if necessary fabricating - the facts... considers the reign of the son of Arathorn and where it has led us."