­Students, faculty, staff and alumni from Mississippi State University have a new award to contribute to the university’s esteem-the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education awarded MSU fourth in the nation for freedom of speech.
FIRE is a “watch dog” organization that reviews policies and procedures in colleges and universities regarding constitutional freedoms for students and others on college and university campuses throughout the country.
Bill Kibler, vice president for Student Affairs at MSU, said some of the policies that FIRE takes into consideration include policies pertaining to expression, assembly, organizational affiliation, harassment and discrimination.
“FIRE reviews a whole range of policies on each campus,” Kibler said. “I believe MSU has had a long history of assuring that our policies and practices assured the highest level of freedoms permitted by law.”
Philip Poe, assistant professor of communication, said the ratings bring good recognition to MSU, as well as give the students an equal opportunity to speak out on their beliefs.
“The university has worked to foster an environment of anti-discrimination and equal opportunity and the chance to freely express yourself, whether students take that opportunity or not is their decision,” Poe said.
According to thefire.org, FIRE reviewed 392 schools, giving only 14 a green light.
Also, 65 percent of universities in the United States received a red light, meaning that at least one policy clearly restricts freedom of speech or denies access to the public regarding its policies about free speech.
In the past, MSU has been given a yellow light concerning this topic. The yellow light means that the institution has policies that could stifle freedom of speech.
“Although we had a yellow rating before, it really only took some fairly  minor changes in the language of one or two of our policies to change our ratings to green,” Kibler said.
Mark Goodman, professor of communication, said some of the university policies were unconstitutional and after MSU revised its policy to be more constitutional, MSU received the green light.
Kibler said even though freedoms have remained the same since the Constitution was ratified, there have been many changed in interpretation and application since then.
“Although freedoms of speech and expression and assembly have been assured since our Constitution was ratified, there have been changes throughout our history in case law coming from the courts that pertain to how these freedoms are interpreted and applied in varying situations,” Kibler said.
Kibler also said that all universities should stay current on these changes so they can be changed and adjusted accordingly.
Poe said stressing freedom of speech is important for any university. People should be able to express their opinions in a peaceful manner.
“It’s an important function of universities – to foster that beliefs or ideals that this country was built on that people can have civil discussions about issues in which they have different opinions and we can still get along at the end of the day, we can all wear maroon and go to the football game at the end of the day,” Poe said.