Opinions from around the country

The education system is losing its vigor for the pursuit of knowledge.

When you were a senior in high school, sifting through U.S. News & World Report’s listing of the nation’s best colleges, you looked at student-to-teacher ratios, minimum SAT and ACT scores and acceptance rates. But there were no indicators of campus liveliness, social awareness, faculty, etc.; there was little to nothing that suggested what the school did outside of academics.

It felt inadequate. Whether it was youthful naiveté or budding maturation, we expected something more out of college. High school was lacking. And university life was supposed to provide that. Historically, one of the greatest outlets for this potential is in protest. Think ’60s.

Florida State University has set up “free-speech zones” in an oxymoronic effort to encourage this student-centered aspect of the collegiate experience. The issue came to light when students there organized an anti-sweatshop protest. They were arrested for holding the protest in an area not designated as a “free-speech zone.”

Of course they should let them protest; FSU’s problem is more fundamental than that. Protest and public assembly are additional outlets for learning. The idea of a “free-speech zone” carries the implication of “no-speech zones.” The arrest of 12 anti-sweatshop protesters illustrates this.

It is in a university’s best interest to not only allow but encourage student activity. In a time when youth care less and less about the world around them, it seems urgent that a school would take measures to stop this.

Continuing to see academia as an exclusively class-based system — lectures, presentations, papers and exams — deprives us of the awareness necessary to actively participate in society.

Protest needs to be accepted as a basic tenet of the university system.

Things like “free-speech zones” are problematic because they can censor an assembly before it even takes place. Enough with all the red tape. Is it not in the nature of protest to be somewhat spontaneous, jarring and provocative?

When done peacefully and with good rationale, free demonstration is a valuable educational tool. We learn a lot in class and that can never be undermined.

This editorial comes from the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois. This column was distributed by U-Wire.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002