General Assembly’s threats don’t stop on free speech, but show flaw in system
While the University of Maryland Hoff Pirate Porn Funding Scandal has raised a huge stink among students at College Park, I have to wonder: is this really even a freedom of speech issue? Nope.
Terp kids are infuriated that their right to show these lovely videos has been taken away. But it hasn’t been.
The state is only threatening to take away funding. It’s threatening to remove something that was never mandated to be there in the first place.
Now I’m the first person to come and defend free speech, but it clearly isn’t applicable here. This debacle is really just indicative of a screwed up system that will only get more screwed up as a result.
See, the state hasn’t threatened any legal action. Had they done that, this would be a First Amendment issue.
However, it’s all about allocation of taxpayer funds, and it’s all about why public universities will never be as effective (or free) as private ones.
Think about it. Can you really blame the Maryland delegates who are trying to put the porn away? They have to answer to their constituents.
They have to answer to the 70-year-old grandma who shuddered at this concept, and they have to answer to the 30-year-old soccer mom who’s still convinced that little Dylan is never going to see porn in his life.
This is why it’s a broken system. The voters, who have no real reason to be controlling the university system, are actually the ones at work here.
I’m not going to say whether I, the resident Republican at The Towerlight, think the porn should be shown or not. I won’t tell you whether or not I would have gone to see it. That’s not the point.
The point is that it should be up to the students and the university to show what they want to show, but it’s not. They have no real complaint against the state, because Maryland is not bound in any way to just go ahead and fund them ‘x’ number of dollars.
But where is College Park going to get the money? It’s not like they can get taxpayer money any other way.
Which is why higher education should be less publicly funded: the public just doesn’t get it all the time.
Pete Lorenz
College Park’s screening of ‘Pirates II’ is demonstration of free speech on campus
While the University of Maryland Hoff Pirate Porn Funding Scandal has raised a huge stink among students at College Park, I have to wonder: is this really even a freedom of speech issue? Nope.
Terp kids are infuriated that their right to show these lovely videos has been taken away. But it hasn’t been.
The state is only threatening to take away funding. It’s threatening to remove something that was never mandated to be there in the first place.
Now I’m the first person to come and defend free speech, but it clearly isn’t applicable here. This debacle is really just indicative of a screwed up system that will only get more screwed up as a result.
See, the state hasn’t threatened any legal action. Had they done that, this would be a First Amendment issue.
However, it’s all about allocation of taxpayer funds, and it’s all about why public universities will never be as effective (or free) as private ones.
Think about it. Can you really blame the Maryland delegates who are trying to put the porn away? They have to answer to their constituents.
They have to answer to the 70-year-old grandma who shuddered at this concept, and they have to answer to the 30-year-old soccer mom who’s still convinced that little Dylan is never going to see porn in his life.
This is why it’s a broken system. The voters, who have no real reason to be controlling the university system, are actually the ones at work here.
I’m not going to say whether I, the resident Republican at The Towerlight, think the porn should be shown or not. I won’t tell you whether or not I would have gone to see it. That’s not the point.
The point is that it should be up to the students and the university to show what they want to show, but it’s not. They have no real complaint against the state, because Maryland is not bound in any way to just go ahead and fund them ‘x’ number of dollars.
But where is College Park going to get the money? It’s not like they can get taxpayer money any other way.
Which is why higher education should be less publicly funded: the public just doesn’t get it all the time.
Tyler Waldman
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