Marshall University is a distinguished institution of higher education in the great state of West Virginia. It is home to a diverse student body who are proud to be sons and daughters of Marshall. This being said it is troubling to us as students that our distinguished university has been ranked and marred as one of the worst places for free speech in higher education. In 2011, Marshall University was ranked by FIRE, an organization focused on free speech in higher education, as one of the top twelve worst universities for exercising your first amendment right.

            Speech codes miseducate students about their entitled rights as United States citizens and hinders the educational process. It presents the idea that we as students should be acceptable towards over-regulation in our lives. Marshall University’s Student code of Conduct contains policies that abridge the fundamental rights of the First Amendment. Codes such as Standard 3, are extremely subjective and can easily be manipulated to favor certain approved groups and organizations. Acts that were not meant in harm or to harass can be misconstrued and students grossly punished. We the students feel that these standards and policies can be used to chill protected free speech may it be unpopular, a dissenting point of view, or offensive to some.

            To summarize, we the students value our protected First Amendment right and as tuition paying students of Marshall University petition the administration to truly start the process of revising these unconstitutional speech codes. We values the rights and opinions of our fellow student body and support their right to have freedom in speech no matter how unpopular it may be. We encourage the administration to work with the student body to come to a consensus in revising these student codes and be accountable for protected the constitutional rights of its student body.