[Eugene Volokh, March 29, 2006 at 6:32pm] Trackbacks
Latest NYU Panel Development:

FYI
PRESS ADVISORY
AYN RAND INSTITUTE
2121 Alton Parkway, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92606

TONIGHT’S NYU FREE SPEECH EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PRESS
In order to allow entry to non-NYU guests, the student organization sponsoring this event has been forced by NYU administrators to NOT display the Danish cartoons. The panel discussion on free speech will nevertheless proceed as planned.

Pretty sad.

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WB:
Indeed. I assume that the very thick irony in the release is fully intentional.
3.29.2006 7:44pm
Defending the Indefensible:
I wonder what will happen if they just go ahead and display the Danish cartoons anyhow.
3.29.2006 8:26pm
Brett Bellmore (mail):
Perhaps members of the audience should do it.
3.29.2006 8:40pm
Fishbane (mail):
DtI: my thoughts exactly.

My guess would be an attempt to quietly punish the club in some way, so as to Send the Message without getting much attention.

In school, I was involved in a somewhat similar situation, in which a club I was in wanted a speaker that the admin didn't. A compromised was reached, and we intentionally broke it, and had the speaker. (I wouldn't reach an agreement I didn't intend to honor today; hey, back then I was always right!)

We were "decertified", which meant we couldn't use school property for meetings, and lost a something like $150/semester subsidy. They hassled us about on-campus flyers (which mattered some, for organizing - small, private NE school - everything was "on-campus") for a while, and then dropped the matter. We were recertified the next year, after a stern talking to.

I suspect the reach of the net these days would have made the situation rather different now vs. 1991, assuming a sufficiently volitile subject.
3.29.2006 8:47pm
Ray (mail):
A quick visit to Kinkos could get a cartoon on a fairly good sized poster.
3.29.2006 8:50pm
Kyle Haight (mail) (www):
I wonder how hard it would have been to get artists to work up a few *new* cartoons that were critical of Islam? If NYU only barred display of the original infamous eight, that would seem to comply with their spineless edict while still making the point.
3.29.2006 8:56pm
Gene Vilensky (mail) (www):
I went to the event in question, being a student at NYU myself. The meeting was heavily guarded by security (metal detectors and all) and several mid-level beureaucrats were there to enforce their demand. I asked the organizers what would happen if they displayed the cartoons anyway, they said that the administrators there would tell the police to shut the meeting down. Very very sad indeed. The panel itself was quite good. Jonathan Leaf, a playwright, was very good, as was the president of FIRE. The ARI guy, Peter Scwartz did the usual flame-throwing ARI tripe against religion being anti-reason, blah blah. He made some good points though. In the back, a group of about 20 Muslim students held up a giant sign that said "Freedom of Speech (not equal sign) Freedom to Hate." That really drew the fire from the FIRE president. As a factual matter, freedom of speech DOES equal freadom to hate. Sorry. But anyway, it was a sad day for the university I attend. Its administrators are spineless.
3.30.2006 4:39am