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University backs off investigation of April Fools’ edition after legal threat letters

Just two days after it received a warning letter from a civil liberties group, the University of Wisconsin-Superior dropped its investigation of the campus newspaper for its April Fools’ edition.

The Promethean editors also threatened to sue the administration for commencing the investigation in response to a complaint from a grad student, who said the edition was offensive and the editors “intimidated her in an attempt to take away her freedom of speech.”

The Duluth News Tribune reports that the UW-Superior administration is mum on why it dropped the investigation.

It simply told Promethan staff in a meeting Friday that “the office was closing the investigation into a grievance filed against the paper and that no further action will be taken.”

The timing seems clear: Reminded of the harsh legal precedent against public institutions that launch investigations into legally protected speech, and fearing a lawsuit by the Promethean backed by the well-funded and growing Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the administration caved.

The Promethean editors seemed to learn the wrong lesson from the incident, though: Censor yourself to avoid hassle.

The editors are students and it was a learning process for everyone involved, [Editor-in-Chief Marcus White] said.

“As a college student, you’re always learning,” White said. “I think we learn, we grow from this, we see what could have done better, what did we like, what did we not like, take this ahead for next year.”

FIRE said it never should have come to this:

Students—including the student who filed the grievance that triggered this investigation—are free to report speech that offends them to administrators. But in responding to such complaints by opening and publicly announcing an investigation, as UWS did, administrators send the message to students that the university considers it its job to referee and penalize protected speech. That only encourages more complaints to administrators—chilling free speech yet further.

Read the News Tribune story and FIRE’s analysis.

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About the Author
Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.