School Spotlight

Doane University

Location: Crete, Nebraska
Type: Private

Speech Code Rating

Doane University has not been given a speech code rating. To request speech code information about this school, please submit a speech code request form.
  • At present, FIRE does not maintain information on this school's policies.

  • Doane University punishes librarian who displayed historical blackface photos

    June 10, 2019

    In April 2019, Doane University investigated and suspended faculty librarian Melissa Gomis for curating a historical photo display, entitled “Parties of the Past,” consisting of photos selected from the university’s archival collection. Two of the photos showed Doane students wearing blackface at a 1926 masquerade party. During the investigation, Doane President Jacque Carter sent a… Read more

  • Doane University knocks critical faculty member’s website offline with meritless copyright claim

    November 6, 2020

    As Doane University’s Board of Trustees weighs proposed cuts to the university’s programs, one faculty member created a website to criticize the proposal. In response, Doane — which previously wound up on FIRE’s 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech list for censoring a librarian’s exhibit — issued a bogus takedown notice, claiming the website was… Read more

  • FIRE names America’s 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2020

    January 29, 2020

    These 10 colleges represent the worst campus censors over the last year Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute receives Lifetime Censorship Award PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 29, 2020 — Who are the worst campus censors? The competition is stiff, but today the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released its annual list of America’s 10 Worst Colleges for Free… Read more

  • 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech: 2020

    January 29, 2020

    Since 2011, FIRE has named and shamed 65 individual colleges and universities as America’s worst for free speech. Some — we’re looking at you Harvard, DePaul, and Syracuse — are regulars and have appeared four or five times. Others have slunk away in embarrassment after being listed. But all have one thing in common: They… Read more

  • Doane University tries to hide historical blackface photos, punishes librarian who displayed them

    June 10, 2019

    Doane punished librarian for displaying university’s own historical photos because they included blackface photos from the ‘20s FIRE and NCAC wrote to remind Doane they promise academic freedom Doane said it “does not and will not comment on internal employee issues” despite commenting extensively to the press CRETE, Neb., June 10, 2019 — Can Doane… Read more

  • Librarian chose not to censor Doane University’s past, so they censored her

    May 21, 2019

    FIRE and the National Coalition Against Censorship have sent a joint letter to Nebraska’s Doane University objecting to its investigation and suspension of a faculty librarian who curated a photo display of the history of social events at the school, which included photos from university archives showing Doane students from the 1920s who appeared to… Read more