While the Committee on Student Life's (CSL) decision last semester seemed to resolve the conflict between freedom of expression and freedom from harassment in favor of the latter, University President Lawrence Bacow recently made it clear that this will not be the case.
"Universities are places where people should have the right to freely express opinions, no matter how offensive, stupid, wrong-headed, ill-considered or unpopular," he said in an e-mail to the student body last week.
Although the CSL came down in favor of freedom from harassment just months ago, Barbara Grossman, an associate professor in the dance and drama department who chaired the committee during the proceedings, said that she supports Bacow's ideals. Given his e-mail, "freedom of expression is paramount at Tufts and I have no problem with that," she said.
What did concern Grossman, whose term on the CSL ended last year, is the ambiguity reflected in the Pachyderm, Tufts' student handbook, which supports both of the sometimes competing values. "What I'm happy about is the president's statement has provided clarity," she said.
As a result of this clarity, the CSL may find itself hearing fewer cases that deal with freedom from harassment. Grossman said if the president's statement had been released last semester, the committee would have responded differently. "Given the clarification of the policy, we wouldn't have heard the case," she said.
Another component of Bacow's e-mail is a promise to afford students full First Amendment rights, even though Tufts, as a private university, is not required to do so.
Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts, said she is "very grateful" to Bacow for this promise, which she called "a really important concept."
-by Rob Silverblatt
