The Internet in the College Community

This article reviews several current issues at the intersection of free expression and electronic communication on the college and university campus. It presupposes the conclusion which a unanimous Supreme Court reached in late June 1997, in the Communications Decency Act Case - that speech on the internet is as fully protected by the First Amendment as is expression in more traditional and familiar media. The quandary for institutions of higher learning, sharply criticized in this article, is the belief of many regulators, on as well as off campus, that electronic or digital messages pose different risks and may therefore be restricted to a greater degree than print messages.