Across the country students and faculty are returning
to campus this month for the start of the spring semester. As the semester starts up again I’d
like to take a moment to update you on a few developments from over the winter
break:
University
of Virginia Alters Speech Policies:
As 2010 came to a close
criticism from civil liberties groups led the University of Virginia to alter
four of its policies on student speech and conduct. The policies included two sexual harassment policies that
listed “innuendo” as examples of prohibited speech, an internet policy that blocked
messages that vilify others, and the school’s “Bias Reporting System.” In each
case, the policies could have been used to discipline students for
constitutionally protected speech.
The Washington Post has the full story here.
New Groups
Join Idaho Academic Freedom Suit: The Thomas Jefferson Center for Free Expression and
the American Association of University Professors have been granted “friend of
the court” status in the case of Habib Sadid, the ISU professor fired for
comments made in faculty senate meetings.
As we’ve blogged about before (here and here) Sadid hopes to overturn a
worrying district court ruling that found that his Academic Freedom was limited
by the 2006 case Garcetti v. Cebellos. The case found that a public employee
could be disciplined for speech related to their official duties. For Faculty this has been interpreted
by some courts to mean teaching, research and shared governance. The Idaho State
Journal has more.
Olympic College to Revise Speech
Policy: Olympic
College in Washington is considering eliminating a policy that requires outside
groups to register in advance before demonstrating and limits them to
designated zones on campus. The school
established the policy last year
after a pro-life group's visit prompted controversy on campus. Students, faculty and local media
criticized the policy for restricting the culture of free speech on
campus.