October 4, 2009
Conservative Christian group fighting higher ed free speech rules
by Gene Trainor
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
A national conservative Christian group is calling on several area colleges and universities to drop or change their free speech and expression rules because they could discourage students from voicing opinions about religious beliefs and other issues.
The Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has given what it calls "red lights" to 14 Texas schools, including Texas Christian and Texas Woman's universities, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington and Tarrant County College South Campus. The University of Texas at Austin and Rice and Texas A&M universities were also named as part of a national campaign.
Red lights indicate that the organization considers a school's free speech codes unconstitutional and unfriendly to free speech, said Greg Scott, the group's national media relations director. The group is focusing most of its efforts on public institutions, such as Texas Woman's, TCC, UT-Arlington and UNT, because they are more obliged than private schools to adhere to the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of expression, Scott said.
The Defense Fund's major tenets are religious freedom, protecting life from conception to natural death and defending the family, which includes defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
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