Florida Gulf Coast University

Policy 3.021: Email

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: October 18, 2017

The following are inappropriate uses of the University’s email system. Items of this nature should not be sent. This list is not exhaustive, but contains key items that will be deemed inappropriate use of the email system:

1. Use of materials that contains explicit sexual content that are not necessary for University business, including academic instruction and research.

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Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance: Discrimination / Bias

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: October 18, 2017

Harassment: Unwelcome conduct, including electronic and written communication, that is based upon race, color, religion, age, disability, sex, national origin, marital status, genetic predisposition, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender expression, and/or veteran status. Harassment is further defined as behavior so severe, pervasive, or persistent that it limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from an educational program, undermines the responsibilities of the employee, and/or creates a hostile working or learning environment.

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FGCU-PR9.004: Public Expression and Assembly

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: October 18, 2017

Persons engaged in protected speech occurring in public spaces must follow all applicable University Policies and Regulations. An event that requires use of University resources including but not limited to sound amplification, reservable spaces, and security must go through the normal scheduling and coordination process provided by the Office of Campus Reservations. Speech activities must not disrupt the normal operations of the University or infringe on the rights of other members of the University community. No demonstrations may be held inside University buildings.

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FGCU-PR4.002: Student Code of Conduct and Student Conduct Review Process- Harassment

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: October 18, 2017

Harassment – Conduct, including electronic or written communication, which is so severe or sufficiently persistent or pervasive that it undermines the roles of faculty and staff or so detracts from the impacted student’s educational experience that a reasonable person with the same characteristics of the victim of the harassing conduct would be adversely affected to a degree that interferes with his or her ability to participate in, or realize the intended benefits of, employment, a University activity or resource.

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FGCU-PR1.003: Non-Discrimination, Anti-Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Regulation

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: October 18, 2017

For the purposes of this Regulation, harassment, a form of discrimination, is defined as unwelcome conduct, including electronic and written communication, that is based upon race, color, religion, age, disability, sex, national origin, marital status, genetic predisposition, sexual orientation, gender identity/gender expression and/or veteran status. Additionally, harassment is further defined as behavior so severe, pervasive or persistent that it limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from, an educational program, undermines the responsibilities of the employee, and/or creates a hostile working or learning environment.

Hostile environment, based on a protected class, exists when harassment is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or persistent and objectively offensive so as to deny or limit a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the University’s programs, services or activities; or when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s employment.

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Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature including unwelcome sexual attention, including requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature from any person that is so severe, pervasive or persistent that it limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from, an educational program, undermines the responsibilities of the employee, and/or creates a hostile working or learning environment. Sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment.

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Editorial: Make sure rules are clear at FGCU

July 18, 2008

Rules can be a work in progress. But getting them right is important, especially when freedom of speech is involved in a setting that is supposed to nurture lively exchanges. Florida Gulf Coast University, barely a decade old, owes a “thank you” to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education ( FIRE), a watchdog organization over campus free speech around the country. The group has spotted vague wording in at least areas three which could be interpreted as infringing on rather than protecting rights. n First example: A ban on “expressions deemed inappropriate.” That has been refined by FGCU to […]

Thought Police Spring to Action on the Campus

November 26, 2001

Stop Funding Campus Anti-Americanism

November 2, 2001

The Death of Free Speech in Higher Ed

October 31, 2001

State University Library Bans American Pride Stickers

October 24, 2001

State university library bans American pride stickers FORT MYERS — While many Americans display patriotic messages in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks, librarians at one Florida university have been hushed. Library Director Cathy Hoeth told her staff not to wear “I’m proud to be an American” stickers because they might offend the 200 foreign students at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. That policy may violate the staff’s rights to free speech, said Randall Marshall, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “The problem is that employees don’t give up their constitutional rights merely […]

FGCU makes code of conduct changes to protect free speech

July 13, 2008

Burning questions as to what constitutes free speech on campus sparked a recent change to Florida Gulf Coast University’s student code of conduct. It’s not because the institution was feeling the heat from a First Amendment protection group, though, a university official said, but out of a need to update its policies to keep with the times. In April 2007, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, published a report on its Web site, www.thefire.org, deeming the university’s personal abuse policy unconstitutional and demanding changes to it. Now, one year later, FGCU has redefined that policy, but other […]

Speech Code of the Month: Florida Gulf Coast University

April 5, 2007

FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for April 2007: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU). FGCU is a public institution, bound by the First Amendment. FGCU’s “Personal Abuse” policy prohibits “lewd, indecent, racist, prejudice [sic], obscene, or expressions deemed inappropriate.” This policy is unconstitutional on so many levels that it is almost hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with what is perhaps the most obvious problem: “expressions deemed inappropriate.” Who gets to do the deeming? Is it university administrators? If so, that’s an awful lot of discretion just waiting to be abused. Is it the listener, such […]