CMU Professor Restricts Students 1st Amendment.

One of the major things that makes America the greatest country in the world is our vast number of Constitutional Rights. These rights allows people to do and have certain things that if followed correctly cannot be infringed.

One of the Constitutional Rights that has been prominent in the political scene. the 1st amendment is an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, prohibiting Congress from interfering with freedom of religion, speech, assembly, or petition. This has been widely used throughout our nations history to protect people who express their mind peacefully in order to achieve a goal. That goal might be to protest something a president has done or said, or speaking outside of a courthouse advocating for the incarceration of a felon. It is endless.

One of the ways college students advertise for their Registered student Organizations (RSO) is through the use of tabling and putting up fliers through the buildings on campus. Which in fact are protected by the 1st amendment, especially on a public campus like CMU.

In march of 2020 Students of both the CMU republicans and Turning Point USA RSO recorded a conversation between them and the Religion and Sexuality Professor Sara Moslener in regards to the organization they are apart of and the posters they had put up around campus (I will reiterate they had ever right to put the posters where they put them).

At the beginning of the interview Professor Moslener said ” I take these down when I see them because I am terrified by your organization” to which one of the students remarked that she was afraid of Antifa.

Moslener remarks that taking down the posters when she sees them is an “act of civil disobedience for me, and if you need to call me out on it, do it”

The students and Moslener continue to have a discussion about Charlie Kirk (founder of Turning point USA). CMU responded to this incident and as of public knowledge CMU did not proceed with any disciplinary action.

Moslener was later identified as a part-time professor employed by CMU.

No one should infringe on others rights and this instance demonstrates that these things happen on college campuses and in some cases it can be even more severe. It is unclear to me how CMU should’ve responded to this incident. However, it should’ve been made clear that CMU does not tolerate anyone taking down posters from organizations on campus and does not condone the actions by Sara Moslener to restrict these students and their clubs 1st amendment to free speech.