Local Professor Publishes New Chapter About Active Learning in Political Science
Lebanon, IL (09/09/2025) — Dr. Brian Frederking, a professor of political science at McKendree University, recently published a chapter in a 2025 book titled Short Games and Active Learning in Political Science: Beating the Clock. Published by Taylor and Francis, the book is slated to come out this fall.
The chapter, which is called "Campus Speech Code Committees," explains a simulation in which students in an American Politics course wrestle with free speech issues. This simulation, which Dr. Frederking has been implementing in his American Politics classes for nearly 20 years, puts students in the role of a campus speech code committee that must decide whether to expel students who do and say a range of problematic things and violate the university speech code. They are then presented with several cases, and they vote on whether any of them violate the university speech code or is part of freedom of speech. The examples range from burning the American flag, using racially-charged verbiage, sending unwanted text messages, and more.
After the simulation, Dr. Frederking then discusses how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule on those examples, which then lead to discussions about the differences, if any, between free speech in the larger society and free speech on a college campus.
"Students do not really understand the constitutional right to free speech. The first amendment is about the relationship between the government and the individual. It protects individuals from a government who might want to put them in jail, but it does not mean you can say anything you want online, at your job, or on campus," Dr. Frederking said. "Many students expel the majority of the examples in this exercise, but the Supreme Court has not ruled that such examples mean you go to jail."
McKendree University
Tina Napper, 618-537-6865, cmnapper@mckendree.eduShare this Story
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