Student’s Suit to Get Thesis
in Library Denied
A lawsuit filed against the University of California/Santa Barbara by former graduate student Chris Brown was tossed out of a Los Angeles courtroom April 30, granting the school’s motion for a summary judgment.
Brown had sued the university in July 1999 when officials refused to file a copy of his master’s thesis in the library because it included two pages of “disacknowledgments” criticizing the library, school administrators, and graduate faculty.
University officials called the ruling a victory for the free-speech rights of the faculty and officials involved, the Los Angeles Times reported May 1. Chancellor Henry Yang said Brown was free to speak his mind, but faculty members have the right “to decide what is appropriate to include in an academic paper.”
Brown’s attorney, Paul Hoffman, said he would appeal the ruling. Other civil-liberties advocates predicted an ultimate win by Brown. Thor Halvorssen, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said, “This is an open and shut, slam-dunk First Amendment case. The university, in this case, is wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Posted May 7, 2001.
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