FIRE vs. GMU

Julian Sanchez | November 17, 2005

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is challenging a George Mason University policy requiring pre-approval of handbills and leaflets. When a student protesting military recruiters on campus was assaulted by another student, police arrested the protester, apparently because he was in violation of the policy. (No charges were filed against him.) GMU has apparently tapped a "faculty led committee" to review the policy.

What's particularly intersting here, for those of you who aren't familiar with Mason, is that the school is a kind of libertarian mecca. It's home to both The Institute for Humane Studies and The Mercatus Center. Its faculty boasts folks like Tyler Cowen, Walter Williams, Vernon Smith, James Buchanan, Don Boudreaux, Tom Hazlett, Jon Adler, Ronald Rotunda, Gordon Tullock, and Judge Douglas Ginsburg. In other words, it may well be the most heavily libertarian-staffed institution of higher education in the country; certainly it's the one with the highest concentration of eminent libertarian names. A "faculty led committee" should, one hopes, make short work of the policy.