As a long-time member of the news media, I am the first person to raise my voice in support of First Amendment free speech rights. But using free speech in defense of Professor Bailey is misplaced. If he thought seeing a demonstration of the gadget in question had educational benefit, he could have exercised his free speech rights by simply providing his students with a link to one of many Web sites where its function is demonstrated. That would have given students a real choice – and freed up the $100 that was allegedly spent as an honorarium for another less controversial purpose, which in turn would free the school’s public and donor relations machines to do more worthwhile things than putting out this fire.
-Stephanie Strom
WCAS ’85
