For the City Times

STEVENS POINT — Take a closer look at the topic of free speech as a member of a new reading group at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Community members and UW-Stevens Point students may join the group, led by Professor John Blakeman, chair of the Department of Political Science, and Assistant Professor Josh Horn, Department of Philosophy. The group will read “Free Speech on Campus,” a book by constitutional law experts Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman.

“Controversies over freedom of speech on college campuses have existed as long as there have been college campuses,” the authors write in the book’s preface. “But the specific issues vary with each generation. In recent years the tension has been between the desire to protect the learning experience of all students and the desire to safeguard freedom of expression.”

Participants will meet three times on the UW-Stevens Point campus on to-be-determined dates in April and May. The first meeting will introduce the book and the parameters of the discussion. The second and third meetings will be 90-minute sessions divided into large- and small-group discussions of topics covered in the book.

Interested students or community members should contact Scott Tappa in the College of Letters and Science at [email protected] or 715-346-4211. To learn more about “Free Speech on Campus,” go to www.amazon.com/Free-Speech-Campus-Erwin-Chemerinsky/dp/030022656X.