Most people can remember a time during their childhood when someone said something mean to hurt their feelings. If there is one thing to be said about kids, it is that they are incredibly perceptive and brutally honest; Sometimes kids say mean things that hurt, and most just brush it off like it is no big deal since the child doesn't know any better. Society doesn't punish kids for their words, because society expects the parents to handle that. The parents to be the ones to teach when it is appropriate to be nice and be mean, right from wrong. Society expects the parents to all have the same moral and value systems, but in reality values differ between each family and grow and change with time. Kids who were or were not taught the difference between right and wrong grow up and sometimes go to college, where the environment and traditions have been soul-searching and freedom. Freedom from the sheltered life their parents have always provided, and freedom from their parents ways and ideals. Life during college is learning and deciding for oneself what to value and which moral system to embrace. As a result, the universities have come across a particularly complicated obstacle that seems to contradict one of the goals of the institution?is it right or wrong to regulate speech on campus?.
This is the moral argument that universities are being pushed into: Should college speech codes be used on campus, at what point does speech become deviant, and does this policy act in accordance with the goals of the university? There are two instances of an implied telos, defined as the aim, purpose or goal: there is the telos of the argument and the telos of the university. The telos of the argument implies that what is right, is that which does not offend anybody at the university. The telos of the university is to provide its students with an environment that encourages people to embrace new ideas with an open mind, promotes individuality, accepts self-expression, and prepares for thereal? world.
