According to The Daily Reflector, East Carolina University’s Eli Hvastkovs recently wrote an email to chemistry majors that outlined personal statement guidelines for departmental graduation. One of the bullet points apparently stated, “You can’t thank God. I’m sorry about this – and I don’t want to have to outline the reasons why.”
Evidently, other university officials did want to know the reason why and quickly responded by telling students to disregard the email. Provost Marilyn Sheerer stated in the counter email, “These statements can be your personal expressions and as such the University will only limit these expressions as permitted by applicable First Amendment law.” She continued by expressing regret for the miscommunication, which had not been approved by the appropriate university officials, and asserted that personal statements should bring about a forum for student expression.
Sheerer also confirmed that the only statements prohibited were those that either violated state statutes on hate crimes or were disruptive to the campus (including inciting a riot!). And, of course, given that this is a university after all, personal statements that exceeded the word limit or missed the deadline would also be struck of the list...
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