A recent letter submitted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Editor:
I was surprised to learn in the AJC that the late Georgia State University president Noah Langdale “was pleased with GSU’s long-standing tradition of open debate and academic freedom.”
When I was at Georgia State in the mid-1970s, it was students, not administrators, who maintained the campus as a free-speech zone.
I never saw President Langdale personally shut down a literature table, chase away newspaper vendors, or undermine a student election campaign. But I saw his underlings do those things.
Like other campus administrations, Georgia State’s was reflexively hostile to efforts opposing “off-campus” ills like race and sex discrimination, South African apartheid, and U.S. military adventures abroad. When students and faculty members engaged in such efforts, the Langdale administration often forced them to begin by defending their right to speak.
Those “open-debate” conflicts were reported in the campus newspaper, and even broke into the AJC now and then. For the most part, I’m pleased to recall, the students won.
/s/ Steve Marshall
A cartoonist at UGA in Athens captured the situation at Georgia State with a drawing that showed a vendor’s sign advertising “Free Speech: 5¢ A Word!” A subhead said “A friendly administrator will help you choose the words you need.”
Posted by stronglanguage 
Posted by stronglanguage 
Posted by stronglanguage 