Sanctions of varying severity available
In a move sure to enrage student protesters who consider their disruptions of other people’s events a constitutional right, the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors moved one step closer to enacting meaningful sanctions for infringements on campus speech.
A board committee “unanimously” approved the proposed policy Thursday afternoon, setting up the issue for the full board next month, WRAL reported.
The policy affirmatively ensures that students, staff and faculty and “assemble and engage in spontaneous expressive activity” that is lawful and does not “materially and substantially disrupt the functioning” of their school.
It defines “substantial disruption” as “disorderly conduct or disruption” under North Carolina law, including attempts to “materially infringe upon” others’ rights to hear “scheduled” expressive activity “in a nonpublic forum.”
Sanctions for substantial disruption include suspension, expulsion, “demotion or dismissal,” as well as campus bans.
MORE: North Carolina is best state for campus free speech
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education had warned that the penalties in the original proposal were too rigid and not tailored to the severity of the violation, but it backed a revised version that was made public Monday.
A mandatory-minimum suspension for two substantial disruptions was removed from meeting materials, FIRE said in a Wednesday post.
That left one remaining option that FIRE called its “preferred choice,” which would “presumptively” but not necessarily impose suspension after a second violation, subject to the institution’s discretion.
The civil liberties group urged UNC campuses to change their speech policies before they turn into a “clear, direct violation” of likely UNC System policy. Nine of the 16 constituent institutions have “yellow light” ratings from the group, meaning their policies have “vague wording” that could be used to restrict speech.
UNC’s flagship Chapel Hill campus is not among them, and the state as a whole leads the nation on protecting campus free speech, according to FIRE’s latest summer rankings.
The flagship earned plaudits from FIRE in September after it reversed course and let a professor teach a history class that touched on the bogus classes, grade inflation and “shadow curriculum” used for UNC athletes for 18 years.
Read the WRAL story and FIRE’s analysis.
MORE: Bogus classes, grade inflation rampant in UNC athletics
IMAGE: Carlos Die Banyuls/Shutterstock
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