Columbia University Walks Back Anti-WikiLeaks Advice

[laughingliberal]

WASHINGTON -- Three days after Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) sparked national ire by advising students not to discuss WikiLeaks on Facebook or Twitter, the school is walking back its remarks and embracing free speech.

In an email to students last week, SIPA's Office of Career Services warned students that tweeting or posting about WikiLeaks on Facebook could endanger their job prospects with the federal government, according to an alumnus working at the U.S. State Department.<snip>

<snip> Now SIPA's Dean, John H. Coatsworth, is reversing the advice issued to students last week, reaffirming the school's commitment to freedom of speech.

"Freedom of information and expression is a core value of our institution. Thus, SIPA's position is that students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or to their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences," he said in an email obtained by HuffPost.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/06/columbia-university-walks_n_792684.html

[provis99]

1. Columbia is a private school. They don't give a damn about free speech.

They're all about the money, not some silly ideals.

[DrDan]

2. so only the public schools care about ideals???

that is a pretty bizarre statement.

[HereSince1628]

4. Speech has consequences in all schools. Speech is never free.

Generally, the freedom of speech we talk about is the freedom to say something and to live with the consequences. The constitution just limits the government's ability to invoke some of it's consequences overtly.

[DrDan]

6. I certainly agree with that having spent many years as a student and on faculty

in both private and public institutions

[ananda]

3. Somebody afraid of a lawsuit testing the Constitution...

... with Columbia as the defendant?

Could be bad for business.

[corpseratemedia]

5. of course, they'd look like idiots if they didn't

they realize warning students about being blacklisted is a threat

people can and have been blacklisted for not just whistle-blowing. And they know it extends well into the private sector.

At least someone came to their senses regarding a dark part of our history to not overtly repeat it again.

[laughingliberal]

7. True. All I could think about when this happened was Ari, "Americans need to be careful what...

they say." And apparently careful what they read, now, too.