Several Syracuse students received punishments including expulsion and probations after posting insulting comments about a T.A. of one of their classes on the college networking site, Facebook.com.

Trading insults online is nothing new, though there has been a rash of harsh punishments as of late for students caught participating.

It brings up the age-old question: do universities have the right to limit students' freedom of speech? Isn't free speech the very goal that higher education is based on?

Or, do you believe that the students' punishments were justified, considering the crudity of the comments?

Please share your thoughts in the Comments section; we would love to know your opinion.

From Inside Higher Ed:While thousands of students nationwide have added similarly outspoken language to online discussion groups and message boards, four students at Syracuse have learned the hard way that private institutions have the right to Dole out punishments if they deem content expressed on Facebook.com, or any other online medium, to violate their official codes of student conduct.

Several students, including those who have never posted on Facebook.com, and some professors, including those who have had nasty comments made about them online, are questioning whether due process was afforded to the students.

The students were expelled from her writing class, and were placed on "disciplinary reprimand" until next fall. They also had to create informational posters for distribution around campus "about the dangers of Facebook and similar networks as well as online communications," according to Womble. Seideman also deleted the Facebook.com group. If the three students who remain at the university commit other violations of the student code, they could face expulsion from the university.

Joel Kaplan, an associate dean for graduate professional studies at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse, does not believe that anyone's best interests have been served. "The comments are silly, juvenile, stupid and distasteful, but fully protected," he said. "[T]his is an incredible overreaction by those in power at this university."

"If [the judicial office] wants to operate on a case-by-case basis, that doesn't seem like a standard process," Kaplan continued. "What can and cannot be said on the Internet should be spelled out clearly."
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