University of California, Santa Cruz: University’s Restrictions on Interviews with Reporters Violate the First Amendment

In February 2023, Lookout Santa Cruz reported that the University of California, Santa Cruz requires university employees — presumably, including faculty and student employees — to route all media interview requests through UCSC’s media relations office or to university counsel. Because public employees have a right to speak to journalists in their individual capacities on matters of public concern and these requirements stifle the free campus press, FIRE wrote UCSC on March 7 urging it to revise its press practices.