Jake Goldberg isn’t your typical student at Tufts University. He’s immensely passionate about helping students understand their civil liberties and leads an organization, Students Advocating for Students, that is vying to take Title IX reform head-on.
“Since the very beginning of high school, I had had a strong interest in legal issues surrounding free speech and due process,” Goldberg stated in an interview with Red Alert Politics. “When I was nominated to give the graduation speech at my high school’s commencement ceremony, I took the opportunity to discuss the necessity of protecting free expression on college campuses.”
By the time Goldberg started his first year at Tufts, his desire to help combat the threats to free speech and due process at institutions of higher education was stronger than ever.
His first experience in free speech activism started when he sent a letter to the Senate HELP Committee, which was published by The Daily Caller and other news organizations, explaining why “it’s time to defund the out-of-control war on due process for college students.” After gathering hundreds of signatures in support, Goldberg decided to fully devote his free time to campus activism.
“College is a place for students to develop talents and ambitions that rise to the stars,” Goldberg told Red Alert Politics. “It was never designed to be nor should it be a place where students are smothered by the strict stripes of red tape. The best way to undo the damage done by burdensome federal regulations and restrictive administrative policies is for schools to be incentivized to protect students’ civil liberties.”
A national organization dedicated to defending students civil liberties, SAS’s services range from providing weekly news updates, to working with students to alter their school’s student conduct policies, to providing students with specialized resources during on-campus disciplinary procedures.
SAS has attracted national media attention, with its goal of educating college students across the country about the importance of civil liberties, such as free speech and due process on their campuses.
SAS, which Goldberg started in 2016, has broken national news stories ranging from his school’s restrictive Halloween costume policies which were discussed on “Good Morning America,” to multiple Title IX due process violations. SAS has even met with the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education and has been in talks with Massachusetts state legislators to reform a campus sexual misconduct bill.
Goldberg has pledged to continue fighting for what he believes are needed reforms to campus due process, and is currently working with nearly 30 colleges and universities to help his peers better understand their Title IX rights.
“Incentivizing these changes does not require further federal regulations; all that is needed is for students to understand the rights afforded to them and advocate for themselves accordingly,” Goldberg concluded. “Title IX needs to be strictly enforced as the anti-discrimination law that it was designed to be, and free speech ought to be protected in accordance with the First Amendment’s limited exceptions.”
Peter Van Voorhis (@RepublicanPeter) is a conservative activist, commentator, and journalist who focuses on political issues affecting millennials.
