OP- ED: Freed om of Expre ssion Th eme Year St yle Gui de Is Ac tuall y Pre tty C onstr ainin g

As a

write

r and

loyal

Corne

ll st

udent

, I a

pplau

d the

admin

istra

tion’

s com

mitme

nt to

free

expre

ssion

. The

presi

dent’

s fig

ht fo

r fre

e spe

ech i

s imp

ortan

t and

brave

. “Fr

eedom

of Ex

press

ion”

truly

deser

ves i

ts pl

ace i

n his

tory 

as Co

rnell

Unive

rsity

’s fi

rst-e

ver T

heme

Year.

Howev

er, in 

the s

pirit 

of op

en di

alogu

e and 

rigor

ous d

iscou

rse, 

I do 

have 

one c

ritic

al co

ntrib

ution

to Co

rnell

’s re

centl

y ren

ovate

d mar

ketpl

ace o

f ide

as. P

resid

ent P

ollac

k, yo

ur ad

minis

trati

on’s

new S

tyle

Guide

for t

he th

eme y

ear i

s act

ually

prett

y con

strai

ning.

Havin

g to 

hit “

enter

” aft

er ev

ery f

ive c

harac

ters 

(incl

uding

space

s and

punct

uatio

n) is

, per

haps,

an un

due c

onstr

aint

on fr

eedom

of ex

press

ion.

I am

sure 

that

the a

dmini

strat

ion m

eant

well

by th

is ne

w pol

icy.

Never

thele

ss, t

he pr

ohibi

tion

on li

nes l

onger

than

five

chara

cters

is an

undue

burde

n on

all t

he wr

iters

and r

eader

s at

Corne

ll. Pr

eside

nt Po

llack

, ple

ase r

econs

ider

this 

new t

ypogr

aphic

al po

licy.

The “

indis

pensa

ble c

ondit

ion”

of ou

r dem

ocrac

y and

acade

mic f

reedo

m can

not b

e lim

ited

by su

ch ar

bitra

ry ru

les.

Like This!