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has an today concisely summarizing ������ýapp�ٷ�’s latest case at Hampton University, where a gay and lesbian student group—FIREPromoting Equality, Action and Knowledge (SPEAK)—was denied recognition with no explanation. The article says in part:

The university’s states that the university will “support equal rights and opportunities for all regardless of age, sex, race, religion, disability, ethnic heritage, socio-economic status, political, social, or other affiliation or disaffiliation, or sexual preference.”

Greg Lukianoff, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which was contacted by SPEAK, said Hampton has a pattern of squelching free expression. In 2005, students there after being accused of violating university policy by handing out fliers focused on Hurricane Katrina, homophobia and other issues. They eventually were allowed to remain enrolled.

Lukianoff said that Hampton’s mission statement and its practices are inconsistent.

“If a college is clear when you enter that you don’t have certain rights, then that’s there for students to see,” he said. “But Hampton likes to hold itself out as a school that promotes freedom of speech. If you make that promise, you have to deliver.”

The features an by Michael Paul Williams describing the “heavy handed tactics” and arbitrary methods used by the Hampton administration. Williams makes a good point about why it is not in universities’ own best interests to behave in such a manner: students who dislike the campus atmosphere cultivated by such actions will begin to take their business elsewhere.