College President James Freedman will speak on first amendment rights on college campuses, a frequently debated issue at Dartmouth, in a taped speech Thursday afternoon.
Freedman will be a commentator in a live, nation-wide video-conference sponsored by the State University of New York and the Public Broadcasting Service.
The conference consists of a live panel discussion, three imaginary scenarios involving First Amendment issues and taped commentary from Freedman, SUNY-Binghamton President Lois DeFleur and Anthony Lewis, a columnist for the New York Times.
Audience members across the country can call or fax questions for the panelists.
Alex Huppe, a College spokesman, said the conference will address the definition of first amendment rights including what the Constitution protects and how schools deal with free-speech issues.
"This is an issue that's very alive on a lot of campuses around the country," said Ken Goldfarb, a SUNY spokesman.
Fiery debates over first amendment issues on college campuses help explain "how our society deals with differences of opinion and Constitutional guarantees," according to a joint SUNY-PBS statement about the show.
The show is timely because "incidents involving fundamental First Amendment rights are occurring with disturbing frequency," the release said.
The conference was prompted by free speech problems at the SUNY-Binghamton campus.
"I appointed the commission after Binghamton, like many other colleges and universities, experienced a number of incidents that tested our definitions of free speech," DeFleur wrote in a letter.
Margery Heffron, associate vice-president for university relations for SUNY-Binghamton, said the university had problems with a student who had an offensive poster on his door and with other students who prevented a speaker from delivering a lecture.
Goldfarb said SUNY Chancellor D. Bruce Johnstone invited Freedman to participate in the conference "because of his recognized leadership in defense of the first amendment."
Huppe said Freedman "is pretty well-known for his handling of first amendment issues very well here at Dartmouth."
Issues of free speech also hit home in Hanover, where African-American students last spring ignited a controversy by collecting and destroying copies of The Dartmouth Review.
Dean of Students Lee Pelton responded to the events in an open letter to the College community. He wrote that the students who picking up the Review "have neither broken any laws nor violated the College's Code of Conduct."
"I believe it is the College's obligation to encourage and facilitate the free and open exchange of ideas among members of our community," Pelton stated.
And at the University of Pennsylvania, black students last spring destroyed 14,000 copies of the college newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, because a columnist offended them.
The students complained of "blatant and voluntary racism against the black community by the DP, the administration and/or any individual entity affiliated with the University."
Originally intended for SUNY's 64 campuses, the group expanded the conference to include other locations because that the issue "interests campuses across the country," Goldfarb said.
"I think SUNY is trying to do something innovative here by this video-conference," Huppe said.
Matthew Silvia '96, chair of the issues and ideas committee of the Programming Board, helped organize Dartmouth's screening of the teleconference.
Also appearing in the conference will be Blanche Wiesen Cook, a professor of history and women's studies at John Jay College, Nat Hentoff, a Washington Post columnist, Marianne Merritt, a former law clerk for the NAACP legal defense and educational fund, Robert O'Neil, the former president of the University of Virginia, and Orlando Patterson, a Harvard University professor.
The panel will be moderated by Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour correspondent. It will be shown in Silsby Hall from 1 to 3 p.m.
