Committee approves bill addressing free speech in higher education – KSL.com

SALT LAKE CITY A Senate committee voted in favor of legislation that differentiates between free speech and discriminatory harassment at Utahs colleges and universities.

HB132, sponsored by Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, would make it so universities are unable to punish speech that doesnt fall under the the Supreme Courts definition of harassment outlined in the 1999 ruling Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education.

Coleman said theres been a lot of attention in recent years on campus free speech rights. She believes there are two sides to this issue: students who feel like their rights have been inappropriately violated and students (who) are expressing concerns about speech that may be offensive.

Colleges have been all over the place with their student speech rights, she said, and her legislation would codify the standard set by the Davis ruling so it is applies across the board.

Almost all of our public institutions of higher education have problematic policies ... I would say they violate students free speech rights, Coleman said.

The bill would define discriminatory harassment as student-on-student speech that is unwelcome, discriminates on the basis of a classification protected under federal or state law, and is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive to the point of distracting or undermining a students educational experience.

Coleman said courts have relied upon this as the standard in the education setting.

Over-broad, anti-harassment policies are the single most common way universities punish students for free speech that the Supreme Court has said is protected, said Joe Cohn, legislative and policy director for Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

According to Cohn, no Utah universities are in compliance with the Davis ruling.

If passed, Utah would joined the ranks of Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Tennessee that have codified the Davis standard.

Thereve been a number of cases that show its worked for students on both sides of this coin cases where students successfully sued schools for violating their free speech rights because they jumped the gun, and cases where schools have been successfully sued by victims of harassment because their schools didnt act when it was appropriate too, Cohn said.

To address concerns raised by Utahs board of regents and some universities, the committee approved a substitute to the bill that would create a filter between students and the decision to file charges against a university for violating their free speech.

Instead of the students being able to file a lawsuit, they could go to the attorney generals office and make their complaints and then the attorney general could file the lawsuit, explained Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Wood Cross.

When asked what he thought of the change, Cohn said he believes its generally better to allow individuals to take their rights into their own hands, but having an attorney general remedy is vastly superior to having no remedy at all.

Geoffrey Landward, general counsel for regents, said he remains neutral on the bill but feels the attorney general having the right to action is an appropriate balance.

We have two obligations to our students, Landward said. We want to and cherish their right to free speech we think that an important part of higher education is the exchange and marketplace of ideas. The other thing we have is an obligation to keep our students free from harassment.

The committee passed the substituted version of the bill 4-0. It goes to the full Senate.

See the original post:
Committee approves bill addressing free speech in higher education - KSL.com