Rhode Island College: Punishment of Professor for Refusal to Censor Speech

At Rhode Island College, Dr. Lisa Church was threatened with disciplinary action after refusing to punish two mothers for making constitutionally protected comments that offended another mother at RIC's cooperative preschool, of which Professor Church is the coordinator. The offended mother filed a "discrimination" complaint with RIC asking for "some action to be taken" against Church and others at the preschool. RIC college counsel Nicholas Long initially expressed reservations about the legality of proceeding with hearings regarding the complaint, but he later mysteriously reversed himself. RIC then advanced the formal hearing process, informing Church that she faced charges of "hostile environment racism." FIRE wrote to RIC President John Nazarian twice, each time asking him to call off the unconstitutional proceedings, but Nazarian refused to stop the hearings. Although in the end Associate Dean Scott Kane decided that no formal action needed to be taken, Nazarian still refused to concede that the case was a First Amendment violation. As a result, the RIC faculty union filed a grievance challenging the university's unconstitutional speech codes.

Case Materials

Media Coverage

  • "Fraternities Must Stand Up to Schools' Squelching Free Speech," Greg Lukianoff and Matthew Vasconcellos, The Daily Journal, October 11, 2004: While there is no shortage of free-speech battles on college campuses, fraternities have the dubious honor of being at the center of many of the least-sympathetic controversies.
  • "RIC faculty union challenges policy limiting speech," Jennifer Jordan, Providence Journal, October 2, 2004: PROVIDENCE -- Prompted by the recent furor over free speech at Rhode Island College, RIC's faculty union has filed a grievance, asking that language it finds unconstitutional be removed from the college's policies.
  • "Freedom at RIC," Providence Journal, September 30, 2004: With its decision this month to drop action against a professor who failed to regulate students' conversation, Rhode Island College appears to have come down on the side of free speech.
  • "Breaking the Silence," Minnie Quach, Guerrilla News Network, September 29, 2004: Editor's note: Last month, we ran an article entitled, "Backlash 101," by GNN contributor Joshua Holland, editor of USC's progressive paper, The Trojan Horse. Holland argued that heavily-funded conservative groups were taking advantage of an anti-political correctness backlash to make political gains among impressionable college students across the country.
  • "Freedom of speech: RIC ends the inquisition, not the debate," Greg Lukianoff, The Providence Journal, September 22, 2004: ON SEPT. 9, Rhode Island College tried to weasel out of an embarrassing free-speech controversy, in which it had tried a professor for doing nothing more than refusing to violate the First Amendment. And though RIC's decision not to proceed with "further formal action" against the professor was welcome, it did nothing to convince civil-liberties watchdogs that free speech is secure at RIC.
  • "RIC drops complaint against professor," Associated Press, September 12, 2004: Rhode Island College has dropped a discrimination complaint against a professor who refused to discipline two students who allegedly made racist remarks.
  • "RIC drops complaint against professor," Tracy Breton, Providence Journal, September 12, 2004: PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island College has decided not to proceed with any "further formal action" in a case brought against Lisa B. Church, a professor at the college who was summoned to a hearing last week to determine whether she had violated college policy by refusing to punish speech that many consider protected by the First Amendment.
  • "Professor faces deadline for hearing on discrimination complaint," Associated Press, September 3, 2004: A Rhode Island College professor called in for a hearing for failing to discipline two students who allegedly made racist remarks has not scheduled the meeting and wants the college to call off its probe.
  • "College discusses next move in discrimination case," Brooke Donald, Associated Press, September 3, 2004: Rhode Island College officials were discussing Friday how to proceed with a discrimination complaint against a professor who refused to discipline two students who allegedly made racist remarks.
  • "Attacking speech at RIC," Edward Achorn, Providence Journal, August 31, 2004: A FRIEND of mine is in the middle of the bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran. It's the story of a teacher in Iran who meets in secret with seven students to read forbidden Western texts -- all the time fearing raids by Islamic morality squads who are out to enforce ideological conformity and purge wayward professors.
  • "Professor accused of not punishing students for racist remarks," Associated Press, August 27, 2004: A Rhode Island College professor has been called in for a hearing for failing to punish two students who allegedly made racist remarks, and her case is drawing the attention of civil liberties advocates.
  • "RIC hearing focuses on free speech," Tracy Breton, Providence Journal, August 27, 2004: Rhode Island College will hold a hearing to determine whether a professor violated college policy for refusing to punish speech that many consider protected by the First Amendment -- and prompting a national civil liberties advocacy group to cry foul.