Middle Tennessee State University Free Speech Center Releases First Amendment Report for Students

There are nine practices that could significantly improve the climate of free speech on American college campuses nationwide. This, according to a report released by Middle Tennessee State University’s (MTSU) Free Speech Center last week, aimed at offering best practices for First Amendment advocacy, activism, and engagement amongst college students.

The nine practices proposed were: physical environments incorporating the First Amendment, social media engagement, cultural boundary bridging, writing exercises, case studies, targeted campus events, hands-on engagement, building bridges, and a combination of assessment and iteration. Examples of these practices included establishing monuments enumerating the First Amendment rights, or offering exercises where students experience loss of these rights momentarily by exchanging their First Amendment freedoms for a free lunch.

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Ken Paulson, Director of MTSU’s The First Amendment Center Exercises His First Amendment Right Not to Speak on the Show

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed public affairs strategist Clint Brewer in the studio.

At the top of the third hour, Leahy and Brewer discuss Middle Tennesse State University’s First Amendment Center and the dynamics of the First Amendment and Paulson’s focus on peaceful assembly. Leahy added that Paulson declined an invitation to come on The Tennessee Star Report and talk about the Center.

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New MTSU Advertising Campaign Promotes the First Amendment

A third of Americans cannot name even one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, according to Ken Paulson.

The director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University aims to change that with a new advertising campaign.

No one has ever “effectively marketed the First Amendment,” Paulson said.

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