Student Sanctioned For Comments On Homosexuality

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• What a "touchy" topic. Facebook isn't directly sanctioned by any university. I'm not sure if this issue can be called one of academic freedom since it isn't through the university. Schools are represented by their students on Facebook after enough students from the school contact the people at Facebook and ask for their school to be added. This phenomenon only recently occurred at SHU-- September 21st, to be exact.

  However, since the student is representing the school by merely being a student (i.e. wearing a Duquesne sweatshirt, using an "@duq.edu" email address, putting the school on his resumé, attending classes with other students, etc.), Duq may have an argument. But this couldn't actually go anywhere because schools could get upset about students' announcement of any particular beliefs, participation in groups or clubs, and activity that might vie from the university's stated beliefs.

  I don't agree with the student's actions. But did Duq really have the right to force the student to remove the information from his Facebook profile? The only way he's associated with the school via Facebook is his school email account. And does Duq have the right to assign a long writing assignment on the topic of his disagreement as a sanction for his actions? What purpose would this writing serve? (Reminds me of kids being punished with the task of writing "I will not run in the halls" 100 times on the chalk board.) The internet is not a private forum, by any stretch of the imagination, but this issue does concern the student's rights more than the university's policies, in my opinion.

  Sidenote: the Res Life staff here at SHU is beginning to prepare a program about Facebook for students. Peculiar how this incident came up at the time we began discussing things.

• I was being a little hyberbolic there, but the point still stands that this is more than just an issue of academic integrity. This is an issue of demoralizing a group of human beings.

• Under the purview of academic freedom, Duquesne also has the right to educate according to its charter and mission. The "punishment" given to the student seems fair and proportional, though I didn't read the Facebook posting, so I'm really only guessing.

  The TV reporter who asked him if he would rather be kicked out of the university was baiting him in order to force him to make a strong statement.

  I tend to be pretty careful about casually invoking Hitler, though. Duqesne is treating this as an opportunity to educate, and that makes a lot of sense.

• This is a very interesting issue because of all the implications. Students should have academic freedom. However, there is a certain level of personal responsibility for what hurtful or denegrating language they use.

  The funny thing is, Hitler used this same language to justify the killings of I believe 15,000 homosexuals in concentration camps. These were only the documented killings, by the way.

  We as humans make excuses to persecute other human beings. This language is the same language people use to justify killings. If an individual is not human or completely human, then killing that person is not murder in the murderer's eyes.

  Although this is not an issue of murder, it is an issue of where we draw the line on hate. Although this person did not kill anyone, he used denegrating rhetoric. Universities generally don't condone racially or sexually belittling language. It doesn't matter whether homosexuality is moral or not. Calling another human being "subhuman" is ethically and morally wrong.

  I applaud Duquesne's decision. No one should have the right to dehumanize any individual, gay or not.