free speech

Last weekend's tragic violence sparked by white supremacists on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville highlights how unprepared colleges are to handle the threat of political violence.

The issue of free speech reared its ugly head again this week when UC Berkeley cancelled a speech by professional provocateur Ann Coulter. The school said it was a matter of public safety, but Coulter and the group who invited her say it’s an attempt at censorship.

Students and faculty at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire enjoy some of the least restrictive speech rights in the country, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The school was recently awarded a "green light" free-speech rating from the FIRE, an organization that monitors individual rights on college campuses. 

Former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg advised Harvard University graduates “to do a better job of promoting tolerance of diverse ideas.” On Thursday, Bloomberg delivered Harvard’s commencement address and cited incidents where students have shouted down speakers on campus and elsewhere. 

Northeastern University has suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, barring it from meeting on campus and stripping it of university funding. Northeastern says the group repeatedly disregarded university policies.

Hackers have stolen the personal information of  students, faculty, staff and alumni from the University of Maryland. The university says hackers seized Social Security numbers of 309,079 people, and the cause of the security breach is under investigation. This comes as security experts worry future cyber attacks are increasingly likely to come through college and university networks.

Wellesley College finds itself caught up in Chinese politics after an economics professor at Peking University lost his job and Wellesley professors tried to help him get it back. 

Students are moving into dorms, apartments and houses, getting ready for the new school year, but a debate over free speech last semester still lingers at Northeastern University, where a group of pro-Palestinian students says administrators have stifled its free speech.