Student-employees working to raise donations for Brandeis University have been threatened with probation for commenting on school plans to shut down its famous Rose Art Museum, although officials later said the warning was a "mistake."

The report was documented by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which also has been involved with the school over its efforts to discipline Latin American Politics professor Donald Hindley, a veteran of nearly 50 years in teaching.

He was declared guilty of racial harassment and had a monitor placed in his classes after "he criticized the use of the word 'wetbacks' in his Latin American Politics course," according to a statement from FIRE.

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Now a report from FIRE's Adam Kissell said the latest speech dispute at Brandeis is over why students should avoid the school.

"I can understand why tensions are high all over campus and especially in the development office at Brandeis," Kissell wrote. "But really, these are steps in the wrong direction. They are more evidence why FIRE believes that students should avoid Brandeis when they are considering which college to attend. The state of rights on campus is too precarious for a place that ought to be a free marketplace of ideas."

FIRE cited a report in the Hoot, a campus publication, that told of a warning delivered to phone-a-thon workers at the school that they would be placed on probation "immediately" if they were found to have posted comments online about the Rose museum.

The report said FIRE obtained a copy of an e-mail from a fundraising campaign worker.

The e-mail said, "You are all paid employees of the Brandeis University Office of Development and Alumni Relations. It is in incredibly poor taste for you to write anything that can be perceived as slanderous or offensive about the University. Several members of the Development Staff, including myself, are going through facebook, blogs, boston.com, and online petitions."

The report said the e-mail was signed by Brandeis Giving Officer Mathew Magida.

But David Nathan, director of development curriculum, later said school efforts to monitor blogs and social websites online were more to assess alumni sentiment than to identify workers and punish then.

The campus publication said students were upset, quoting one anonymously saying, "I feel like I have to choose between earning money and caring for the university."

Nathan said the e-mail was "misguided."

The controversy blew up after officials announced last week they would close down Rose Art Museum. A report said the university's trustees decided to auction off 6,000 works in the museum collection.

University officials cited a 25 percent drop in the value of the school's endowment.

Brandeis earlier was given status on FIRE's Red Alert list, reserved for the worst rights offenders among colleges across the nation.

WND reported Hindley in 2007 during a course on Latin American politics was targeted by a complaint after he explained to his class Mexican immigrants to the U.S. sometimes are referred pejoratively to as "wetbacks."

"If this statement against racism was at the center of Brandeis's investigation, this is an extreme example of suppressing academic speech by taking it out of context," FIRE's statement said.

FIRE is a nonprofit education group that works toward individual rights, due process, freedom of expression and academic freedom at universities and colleges.

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