> Jeffrey Sachs, a political science professor at Acadia University who often writes about free speech on campus, offered a similar opinion in a Twitter thread. He noted that the suit hinged on two actions: the libelous fliers distributed by staff and the Student Senate resolution.

> “It’s the second action that really worries me. Basically, the court held that since Oberlin authorizes the student senate, subsidizes it, provides a supervisor, and allows it to post its documents on school property, it is legally responsible for the student senate’s speech,” Sachs tweeted.

> While Sachs notes the dean erred in handing out the fliers, “the senate resolution issue feels much more complicated and nothing to celebrate.” The ruling, he suggests, implies that colleges must scrutinize the speech they provide a platform for and “have a legal duty to censor.”

Isn't the solution to clarify that the student senate is not an official body of the college and that its views do not represent the college's views? Require a disclaimer at the bottom of every student senate email, ask the senate to find its own funding, and the college ought to be in a much more defensible position legally. And as a side effect, a student senate which is financially and organizationally independent of the college will be a much better venue for real student free speech.