Since last week, a board in Moseley Center has proposed various questions to the community with space for responses.

Junior Margot Stephenson and senior Ingrid Keller created the board as a project for their Five Freedoms: First Amendment Under Attack class.

Keller explained that they sought to establish an “applied project to create some good,

something to affect Elon students specifically.” She credited Stephenson for the idea.

“It gives students an opportunity to anonymously voice their opinion about politics and a lot of different, important issues locally and nationally,” Stephens said.

Approximately every two days, a new question was posted for students to ponder and discuss. Prompts have varied from “Is America is ready for a woman president?” to “Is there a separation of church and state in today’s society and government?”

One inquiry asked students whether or not they believed the WFMY news story on student drinking at Elon was an accurate portrayal of drinking on campus.

An upcoming question asks students what they would change about Elon if they had the opportunity to do so.

The questions have stimulated a variety of answers. In response to the prompt on the separation of church and state, one individual explained, “Yes, on most issues, except for gay marriage and

abortion.”

Another community member wrote, “No, Jefferson made the separation, let’s bring it back!”

Students also provided a number of answers to the question on the WFMY news report. One response said, “It’s rude, but accurate. Every college campus has drinking problems.”

Another wrote that “A story of one student pushing the limit is not a story of all students. A fair and balanced report would have also shown the student who chose to have a few drinks responsibly.”

Keller explained that the board was assembled as a way for students to exercise First Amendment liberties in an academic setting, and that, because of limits, “people forget what they can and

cannot say.”

A recent study by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, aptly titled “The Future of the First Amendment,” found that almost three quarters of respondents “either do not know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for granted.”

A full 75 percent mistakenly believe that burning the American flag is illegal, and 50 percent of respondents think the government censors the Internet.

In the wake of such events as MSNBC and CBS firing Don Imus for using a racial slur, some have questioned whether or not so-called “political correctness” trumps citizens’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

“I think Elon has an open-minded staff and faculty that allows us to have things like the free speech board and underground newspapers, but maybe the average Elon student doesn’t realize or take advantage of those freedoms,” Stephenson said.

Reporter: Keegan Calliger - 05/03/07