2024-02-03 11:01:33
The climate for free speech and expression on North Carolina’s college campuses is good and improving, according to a new report from the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). The group, whose work is frequently cited by campus trustees and members of the UNC System Board of Governors, gave 14 of the system’s 16 university campuses its highest “green light” rating in its new report.
Just two UNC system campuses — North Carolina A&T State University and Winston-Salem State University — earned a lower “yellow light” rating.
Among the private institutions in FIRE rated in the state, Duke University earned a green rating while Wake Forest University and Davidson College both earned yellow ratings. That’s not necessarily unusual, according to the report.
(Image: Courtesy of FIRE)
“Private schools were significantly less likely to earn green light ratings and more likely to earn yellow or red light ratings than public schools,” the report reads. “The main contributor to the red light ratings? Schools maintaining overbroad policies on harassment that put protected speech at risk.”
Policies aren’t the only way FIRE evaluates universities. Just two years ago, UNC-Chapel Hill landed on FIRE’s list of ten worst colleges for freedom of speech. The group cited both its concern over the university’s botched recruiting of and tenure fight with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and its investigation of its own faculty over a related donor agreement with conservative media magnate Walter Hussman, for whom the university’s journalism school is named.
This year, Chapel Hill got a green light.
Generally vague policies that might be used to improperly curtail protected speech and expression did contribute to the yellow ratings received by A&T and Winston-Salem State, said Laura Beltz, FIRE’s director of policy reform.
Winston-Salem State has been working directly with FIRE on its policies, Beltz told Newsline. Just one policy, which FIRE feels overly restricts where students can post messages and advertisements for events on campus, remains before Beltz said the campus can earn a green rating.
A&T has nine outstanding policies FIRE is questioningBeltz said, though almost all are a matter of the policies being open to an interpretation that would be too restrictive, rather than the campus actively working to chill protected speech or curtail expression.
“One of them is an IT policy,” Beltz said. “It says that acceptable use of technology resources ‘respects an individual’s freedom from unwarranted annoyance.’ But there isn’t a freedom from unwarranted annoyance. Annoying speech is often protected by the First Amendment. So it seems like just regarding anything an administrator might think is subjectively annoying, they take action once morest with that one.”
Laura Beltz, director of policy reform with FIRE. (Photo: FIRE)
Simlarly, Beltz said, A&T has a policy which says students must conduct themselves with “discretion, professionalism and respect in their emails.” Again, she said, a policy that vague might easily be used by an administration that wants to label students or student groups with which it disagrees unprofessional or disrespectful.
A prohibition once morest the use of A&T emails for political activity is a more distinct problem, Beltz said.
“As a tax exempt institution, the university can’t itself participate in political activity,” Beltz said. “But a student’s sending another student an email regarding their political club or political rally wouldn’t be seen as university conducting that political activity. So that sort of email is certainly permissible.”
“Of course, there’s no way that they’re enforcing this once morest all of those emails,” Beltz said. “I’m sure that there are emails on campus from political groups that aren’t being punished, but we worry regarding a policy like this, because then there’s a really controversial political email, you know, especially in these times of conflict on campus. And then the administration chooses.”
Vagueness is also a concern in an A&T policy that requires prior notice to the administration for demonstrations on campus but allows that certain circumstances may warrant a more immediate demonstration. What those circumstances might be isn’t spelled out, Beltz said, leaving it up to administrators to decide one cause might merit loosening time and place restriction on gatherings, speech and expression while another doesn’t.
A&T also has policies on “abusive language” and bullying that are overly broad, Beltz said, going beyond the legal standard. That’s too common, according to FIRE’s new report. The group defining bullying and “civility” in an overly broad way is a worrying trend on campuses, leaving students open to punishment for speech or behavior that the university might prefer not to see from its students but which is constitutionally protected.
“To protect free speech, schools must use the Supreme Court’s standard for peer harassment in the educational setting,” the report reads.
The high court’s definition describes “harassment” as “conduct that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims’ educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution’s resources and opportunities.”
A&T and Winston-Salem State are both historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which may explain some more restrictive policies, Beltz said. Such policies at HBCUs can be a legacy of both historical vigilance once morest racial discrimination and harassment and the idea that students at HBCUs must hold themselves to a higher standard in order to represent themselves and their universities as they compete with predominantly white institutions.
“I have seen particular types of policies at HBCUs, different professionalism codes at HBCUs,” Beltz said. “You see policies saying students have to have a certain professional tone. And there’s another policy in [A&T’s] student conduct handbook that says students have the responsibility to maintain high academic, social, moral and civic character. That’s not the kind of requirement that I see out a lot of public schools. So that kind of unusual language, it does seem to pop up more at HBCUs.”
A&T is aware of the FIRE ratings, said Todd Simmons, the university’s associate vice chancellor for university relations. But the university is comfortable with its existing policies and isn’t working with FIRE to change them, he said.
“We’re certainly mindful to be in compliance with UNC system policies,” Simmons said. “But I can’t recall having institutional engagement with fire over ratings or anything else.”
“I can’t recall in the seven years that I’ve been here, any restrictions on student speech on campus,” Simmons said. “Occasionally, when visitors come to campus, we have to manage their presence. Particularly if they want to table and set up in an area where they’re going to be passing things out or speaking. Sometimes we will step in and manage if it gets to be acrimonious.”
A yellow rating from FIRE for policies it considers too vague isn’t a pressing issue for the university, Simmons said.
“Honestly, there a million different rankings out there and ratings and all of that,” Simmons said. “And, and this is one of the great many. So, we’re mindful of it, but it’s not anything that we give any more consideration than any other rating or evaluation.”
1707018244
#report #North #Carolina #colleges #universities #score #free #speech