H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°Robert Phansalkar’s op-ed on the new “Think Respect” program (Sept. 22) was welcome. It was good to finally see that a student journalist has grasped the fact that the program, as presently conceived, poses a threat to honest discourse and privacy on campus. The program encourages campus citizens to report not only acts of harassment or discrimination that constitute official misconduct, but all forms of “bias,” verbal and non-verbal, without that term being defined in a manner that is consistent with First Amendment principles. In other words, the present policy amounts to a speech code, as it encourages people to file reports on other people’s attitudes and speech that informants deem insufficiently senstive.
Donald A. Downs Professor
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It is nice to see that at least one member of the faculty respects (and protects) our First Amendment rights. Way to go, Downs!
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What is not nice to see, however, is that a professor, as well, as a columinst for the Badger has confused the aim of the Think Canpaign with the University sanctioned program of confidential reporting and punishment. Are there some affliated with the university that are so terrified of a student initiated program that asks only that one “think”, that they refuse to understand what the program truely requires? Please see www.diversity.wisc.edu/story.php?id=12827 and this time calm down enough to absorb the difference between the student initiative and the that of the administration. Please direct your constitutional argument (the Badger staffer who wrote the original editorial comment should avail himself of this advice as well) to your Chancellor John D. Wiley and Dean of Students Lori Berquam. It is THEIR specific program you have issues with. Direct your complaints there. And again I urge you to think and read well before you condemn the student initiative that simply asks for open mindness and encourages students to think outside their norm.
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Right on.
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totally dispectful comments
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You’re asking students to turn each other in for thoughtcrime.
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You just got to get your mind right!