preview

Red Light Rating

Decent Essays

The University of Oklahoma is rated as a yellow light university, and Oklahoma State University is rated as a red light university. According to FIRE, a yellow light university is one with policies that could somewhat easily be able to restrict a limited amount of protected expression. This type of speech code has a clear approach to what content is prohibited, like content regarding alcohol or drugs. A red light, what OSU was rated, means that the institution has at least one policy that clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech. The university restricts access to their speech codes by requiring a login and password, which impedes prospective students from seeing what is prohibited. FIRE believes that this action alone is deceptive and serious enough to give the university a red light rating. In one case at OSU, a pro-life club called Cowboys for Life was protesting against abortion when the university interfered. The problem stated in the report that the university had was that the group was showing pictures related to abortion. Personally, I do see how they could interfere in a case like this because it has gone beyond speech. Some …show more content…

My roommate and I put Christmas decorations and wrapping on our door to be festive. Our floor’s resident assistant came to our door and informed us that we were breaking campus policy by decorating our door this way because it was a safety hazard and Christmas is a religious holiday. I was shocked to hear that we had to take down our decorations because they were completely flat on our door, and I did not see how they could have been a safety hazard. Also, I was shocked at the inability to decorate for a holiday that people who are not even religious celebrate. It is alarming that OU is ranked a yellow light, yet something like this still happened. I cannot even imagine the policies OSU has, since they are ranked as a red

Get Access