American college campuses, where ideas are freely exchanged,
contested, and above all uncensored, are historical hotbeds of
political and social turmoil. In the past decade alone, the media
has carefully tracked the controversy surrounding the speech of
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia, the massacres at
Virginia Tech, the dismissal of Harvard's President Lawrence
Summers, and the lacrosse team rape case at Duke, among others. No
matter what the event, the conflicts that arise on our campuses can
be viewed in terms of constitutional principles, which either
control or influence outcomes of these events. In turn,
constitutional principles are frequently shaped and forged by
campus culture, creating a symbiotic relationship in which
constitutional values influence the nature of universities, which
themselves influence the nature of our constitutional values.
In The Constitution Goes to College, Rodney A. Smolla--a former
dean and current university president who is an expert on the First
Amendment--deftly uses the American university as a lens through
which to view the Constitution in action. Drawing on landmark cases
and conflicts played out on college campuses, Smolla demonstrates
how five key constitutional ideas--the living Constitution, the
division between public and private spheres, the distinction
between rights and privileges, ordered liberty, and equality--are
not only fiercely contested on college campuses, but also dominate
the shape and identity of American university life.
Ultimately, Smolla compellingly demonstrates that the American
college community, like the Constitution, is orderly and
hierarchical yet intellectually free and open, a microcosm where
these constitutional dichotomies play out with heightened
intensity.
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