Thank goodness we have the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to ensure that these outrageous infringements on the right to free speech on college campuses are not left unchallenged.
The University of Central Florida (UCF) has reinstated Professor Hyung-il Jung three weeks after unconstitutionally suspending him on the basis of an in-class joke. FIRE wrote to UCF President John C. Hitt in April, urging this result and reminding UCF of its First Amendment obligations.
On April 23, Jung, a lecturer in UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, was leading an exam review session with roughly 25 students in an accounting course when, according to the Orlando Sentinel, he stated: “This question is very difficult. It looks like you guys are being slowly suffocated by these questions. Am I on a killing spree or what?” A student in the review session reported the joke to the UCF administration, which issued Jung a reprimand letter on April 24, suspending him from “all … university duties,” barring him from the Rosen College campus, and prohibiting “contact of any nature, with any students, for any reason.” UCF additionally demanded that Jung undergo a “thorough mental health evaluation” and obtain written certification from a medical professional that he was “not a threat to [himself] or to the university community.”
The Thought Police — alive and well, here in North Carolina, at the IRS, and at the University of Central Florida.
