CSL overreaches on Source ruling

The Tufts Daily reports:

The Committee on Student Life (CSL) today released a decision finding The Primary Source, Tufts' conservative journal, guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment.

As a result of the verdict, all pieces in the Source must now be attributed to specific authors. The CSL, which is comprised of students and faculty members, also recommended that "student governance consider the behavior of student groups in future decisions concerning funding and recognition," according to a copy of the decision that was sent to the Daily. [read more]

I think that this is horrible. Don't get me wrong-- I was a member of the TPAN cabal to punish The Source over their repeated incidents of hate, but as an Editor of Radix, we often published sensitive and risky material that was not attributed to an author and I would have fought to protect our right to do that. The CSL verdict does not make any sense. Making the publication attribute its hateful prose to particular people might be a structural disincentive for individual writers, but it does nothing to punish thier actions and opens the door to similar, politically motivated sanctions against any publication. The CSL was right to rule against The Source, but did not consider the far-reaching consequences that its ruling could have.

And I haven't even touched the second ruling, that: "student governance consider the behavior of student groups in future decisions concerning funding and recognition."

What?!

This decision is much too broad and could be used against political activists of all stripes. Meanwhile, the budget of The Source remains uneffected & their ability to publish the same hate speech remains unharmed. This ruling does not punish hate speech; It punishes political speech. The Source is right to appeal this decision to protect free speech at Tufts.

It is unfortunate that the CSL came to this outcome. Now that it has, what needs to happen is:

1) The decision must be overturned to protect free political speech at Tufts and

2) Proper, material punishment needs to be found against The Source.