Pittsburg Students Protest Censorship

Abstract

An outside rally at the Carnegie Mellon university (CMU) campus took place November 9, 1994. The action was called to protest a recent administration decision to ban students from gaining access to certain Internet news groups that contain materials school officials deem pornographic. CMU officials maintain that their decision was necessary to comply with a Pennsylvania law dealing with obscenity. "Our official policy is to obey the law." said Bill Arms, vice president for Computing Services. "There are bboards out there that are used to display sexually explicit material." A letter on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) addressed to CMU president Robert Mehrabian explains that the "University's plan is inconsistent with the principles of academic freedom and free speech . and is based on serious misreading of relevant laws." Comparing the Internet to campus libraries, which are exempt from the state's obscenity laws, the ACLU letter notes, "A library free from government control is an essential component of a vibrant university."