Editorial: Offensive Speech is Protected

Particularly chilling are recent reports that Rilata Walker, Temple University's acting vice president for student affairs, threatened to have the editors of The Temple News fired because the paper published an editorial cartoon many people labeled as "offensive." In Schiff v. Williams the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered that the president of Florida Atlantic University reinstate three student editors the president had fired for "vilification and rumor mongering." The court also ordered the president to pay the student editors monetary damages for his false dismissal. Clearly, there are circumstances under which a college administration could fire a student editor, for example if the editor was caught embezzling. But the cartoon printed by The Temple News, while being offensive to many people, is not just cause for dismissal. Until now, Temple has refrained from taking any direct action against The Temple News. When and if it does, The Daily Pennsylvanian will stand by the paper's right to publish any opinion, free from administration censorship.

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