Learn More About Speech Codes: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression

Summary

Public colleges are legally bound to respect their students’ First Amendment rights. Nearly all private institutions promise their students freedom of expression and thus should be held to the same standard as public institutions. FIRE considers the Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression (the “Chicago Statement”) to be the “gold standard” for institutional policy statements on campus free speech. In contrast, some private schools prioritize other values above the right to free speech. You can learn more about schools that do not promise free speech and therefore earn a “Warning” rating here.

Consult FIRE’s Model Speech Policies for College Campuses webpage to explore policies from various institutions in our Spotlight database that earn a “green light” rating in each category, including advertised commitments to free speech.

Policy Example

University of Chicago: Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression (the “Chicago Statement”)

In a word, the University’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed. It is for the individual members of the University community, not for the University as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose.