Berkeley Marks Free Speech Movement While Campus Repression Grows
Kevin Vance / KALW Radio Almanac
Today is Thursday, the 4th of December of 2025…. and on this day in history…. 1964 – Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students
at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest of the UC Regents’ decision to forbid protests on UC property.
Free Speech Is Under Threat in America
Robert Cohen / New York University
Robert Cohen is a professor of social studies and history at NYU, biographer of Mario Savio, and the 2024–25 senior fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement.
“The FSM’s anniversary is worth celebrating. But on the other hand, the free speech cause the FSM championed is in terrible shape (see below).
-Suspensions and expulsions
–Emory students suspended for interview
-Texas students expelled for mocking Kirk’s death (TX Tech, TX State)
–Other disciplinary measures
–Columbia students investigated for op-ed
–Michigan’s continued punishment of pro-Palestinian protesters
–Student organization suspensions
–Ohio state expelled student for social media post
–Adelphi U. suspends SPJ chapter
-Arrests
–Mahmoud Khalil arrested for activism
–Rümeysa Öztürk arrested for writing an op-ed
–Censorship
–Michigan tries to hide a protest quilt
–Pro-Palestinian art censored at UNC (see explanation)
–Alabama suspends publication of student magazines
–University of Central Oklahoma bars student newspaper from printing
–Indiana Daily Student Censored
–Texas bans the First Amendment at night
–Harvard cuts commencement speaker over views
–Judge finds feds stifled speech in AAUP v. Rubio case
–Feds used special unit to target student protesters
