UNC will celebrate First Amendment Day on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. This campus-wide, daylong event is designed to both celebrate the First Amendment and explore its role in the lives of UNC students. Students and other members of the University community will read from banned books and discuss the public university’s special role as a marketplace of ideas and the need to be tolerant when others exercise their rights. As always, First Amendment Day is observed during National Banned Books Week.
First Amendment Day is organized by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy and is truly one of the highlights of the year for the UNC community. Follow the festivities on Twitter via #UNCFree.
Visit this page to learn about all the events happening across campus to celebrate the day.
Several of the day's events are happening here at Hussman:
Ethics and the First Amendment in Conflict: A Student Debate
Freedom Forum Conference Center, Carroll Hall
10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
The UNC Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Team will debate timely ethical issues related to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.
Get 1A Smart: Having Your Say & Staying Out of Court
Freedom Forum Conference Center, Carroll Hall
2:00 — 3:15 p.m.
Come hear seasoned journalists and lawyers discuss how they decide what to say and how they will say it. For aspiring journalists, the panel will discuss the role of pre-publication review and the expectations of those giving and receiving feedback. Everyone will walk away with some helpful guidance on how to stay on the right side of the line when posting online.
Panelists:
Erica Beshears Perel, director of the UNC Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media; former general manager at The Daily Tar Heel
Aysu Basaran, assistant news director at WRAL-TV
John Drescher, contributing editor at The Assembly; former executive editor at The News & Observer Publishing Company
Hugh Stevens, nationally known media lawyer and experienced litigator
Weaponizing First Amendment Rhetoric
Freedom Forum Conference Center, Carroll Hall
4 — 5:15 p.m.
This panel discusses how movements use the rhetoric of free speech and expression as a strategic tool in the service of political, social, and cultural power – and considers alternative ways of thinking about expression to reclaim our shared public life.
Panelists:
Daniel Kreiss, Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media; principal researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life
Tressie McMillan Cottom, associate professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science; senior faculty researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life
Shannon McGregor, assistant professor, UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media; senior faculty researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life
Francesca Tripodi, assistant professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science; senior faculty researcher, Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life
Clay Calvert: Free Speech and Public School Students--Lessons From a Cursing Cheerleader and South Park
Freedom Forum Conference Center, Carroll Hall
6:30 — 7:45 p.m.
The 2022 First Amendment Day Keynote speaker will be Clay Calvert, professor of law, Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication and director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida. Calvert holds a joint appointment with the College of Journalism and Communications and the Levin College of Law. Calvert has published more than 150 law journal articles related to issues affecting freedom of expression. He has taught courses on communications and media law for more than twenty-five years, including courses at the undergraduate, graduate and law school levels.