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The Continued Importance of Campus Dialogue

Written by rsteele

It’s been quite a first semester at Duquesne University for Ryan Miner.

Miner, a 19 year old sophomore, drew the ire of university officials due to an opinion he posted on the infectiously popular internet forum Facebook regarding a proposed gay-straight student alliance at Duquesne. When students noticed the post and alerted the university, Duquesne required Miner to take the post down and write a ten page essay as punishment. Miner, who believes writing an essay violates his right to freedom of expression, has stated he is perfectly willing to face expulsion, if necessary, to defend the right to his opinion.

Miner’s response has created a sharp division on Duquesne’s campus in a case pushing every social hot button imaginable. On the surface, the case of Ryan Miner vs. Duquesne seems to represent gay vs. straight, conservative vs. liberal, student vs. school, Catholicism vs. code of conduct. The greater lesson to be learned here, for student and administrator alike is, however, that strong opinions relating to campus programming are best served by informed, productive dialogue. Such a conversation leaves room for both sides’ opinion to be fully understood, and is essential to preserving the open exchange of views and knowledge vital to the higher education experience in the information age.

The viewpoint espoused by Miner on Facebook led to a curt, stubborn standoff and left his standing as a student at Duquesne hanging in the balance. Miffed by a proposed gay-straight student alliance, Miner created an Anti Gay-Straight Alliance on Facebook, going so far as to deem homosexual acts “subhuman.” When four students brought Miner’s Facebook entries to the attention of Duquesne’s administrators, the office of judicial services promptly sent Miner notification that he had violated the university’s Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct.

Judicial Services ultimately required Miner to remove his comments from Facebook and furnish a ten page essay supporting the perspectives for and against homosexuality – an essay which Miner has no intention of writing. Believing that Duquesne’s Catholic mission is incompatible with a pro-gay student organization, Miner has steadfastly held that the First Amendment guarantees his right to oppose any such association from forming.

Yet Miner’s use of the information superhighway has been counterproductive to his quest for autonomy and damaging to the foundation of Duquesne’s student body – not merely because of his views, but more importantly because of the very nature of the means through which he expressed them. Judging from Miner’s staunch defense of his position, it’s obvious that he feels passionately about his stance – which makes it all the more disappointing that he felt a need to foray into the unpredictable world of cyberspace in the first place.

It’s possible that Miner has only been galvanized by Duquesne’s stern response, but he nevertheless took the least desirable route in presenting his views to the Duquesne community. Posting personal information in cyberspace is dangerous for obvious reasons of personal safety. Concomitantly, in the realm of higher education, biting criticism on controversial social issues related to campus activities is ripe for misunderstanding when left in the vacuum of internet forums like Facebook.

This is not to say that Miner’s opinion would have prevented a gay-straight student organization from ever forming. Yet had he immediately presented his views to the Duquesne administration, the very context of the debate could have been controlled and mediated in a fashion consistent with the exchange of opinions and knowledge vital to the higher education experience. The sequence of events, from Miner’s posting on Facebook to his hearing in front of Judicial Services, featured an exchange of heated broadsides, rather than that of informed inquiry.

Thus, external opinion on the case of Miner vs. Duquesne is shaped through editorials, articles, and political organizations. For Duquesne students, and the public at large, all that is known is that a student posted borderline hate language on an internet forum – which makes it no surprise that the reaction to the situation has been polarized on ideological, religious, and political lines. This is to be expected when there is nothing else to go on except a line in the sand drawn between student and university.

This is why Miner’s case is an ideal example for the higher education community to illustrate when considering the combustible confluence of free expression and the realities of 21st century technology. The American college campus has been, and must forever be, at its very core, a site for the exchange of views and knowledge. It is one of the very few places in the United States where unfettered free expression is promoted, exercised, tested and, at times, reigned in due to the nature of the debate. Yet we must never cease from having the debate.

In the highly integrated, technology savvy age we live in, we must be careful not to devalue the importance of face-to-face exchanges in debate on sensitive social issues. American college students are attuned to particularly volatile topics such as homosexuality, civil rights, race relations, and more. The information superhighway has allowed for an unprecedented democratization of knowledge – as well as the ability to express emotion and opinion in a place devoid of traditional consequence. This is not to say that the internet has proven to be a negative tool in the hands of college students. More precisely, it is to say that cases like Ryan Miner’s are better served by open dialogue with the campus community, rather than relegation to the ambiguity of the internet.

On the surface, Miner vs. Duquesne might seem like an ideological battle. In reality, it should reverberate among the higher education community as an example of just how important informed, open exchanges of opinion, no matter how controversial, are to the fabric of the college campus – a tenet blind to institutional mission and religious affiliation. As we prepare students for lives in an increasingly integrated, globalized society, let us be mindful of how best to merge technological innovation with the free communication of views and knowledge – a principle suited for any age