Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Offenses

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: January 25, 2016

Intentional or reckless acts that cause or reasonably could cause physical or mental harm to any person are prohibited. Actions that threaten or reasonably could cause a person to believe that the offender may cause physical or mental harm are also prohibited. Some examples of prohibited behavior include murder, assault, battery, stalking, telephone harassment, computer harassment, threats, intimidation, physical assault or abuse, verbal abuse, and any other conduct that threatens the health or safety of any person.

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Student Handbook: Student Life- Policy Prohibiting Harassment and Discrimination

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: January 25, 2016

Harassment: conduct that is based on a person’s sex (including sexual harassment, sexual violence, sexual misconduct, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking), race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, military status, or veteran status that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s employment or educational experience or creates an intimidating, hostile, offensive working, educational or living environment.

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Examples of conduct prohibited by this policy include but are no means limited to: … Subjecting a person to offensive and unwelcome conduct based on the person’s sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, military status, or veteran status. Offensive and unwanted conduct includes offensive jokes, offensive pictures and digital images, slurs, epithets, threats, intimidation, stalking, and sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery and sexual coercion. The more severe the conduct the less need there is to show a repetitive series of incidents to demonstrate a hostile environment. In fact, a single severe incident may be sufficient to create a hostile environment.

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Student Handbook: Student Life- Use of University Buildings and Facilities

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: January 25, 2016

Demonstrations may not impede ingress or egress to the University, any University property, parking lot, building, facility, or event. Thus, demonstrators must stay at least twenty-five (25) feet from the entrance to any University building, property, parking lot, facility or event, including entrances to construction sites.

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Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Introduction

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: January 25, 2016

The Code of Student Conduct at Miami University is intended to foster and protect the central purpose of the University: the free and open exchange of ideas.

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Student Handbook: Student Life- Right of Expression of Students

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: January 25, 2016

The University believes that the right of expression is as necessary as the right of inquiry and that both must be preserved as essential to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and truth. Consequently, students, individually and collectively, may express their views through the normal faculty, administrative, and student channels of communication. Students also may express their views by demonstrating peacefully for concepts they wish to make known, and the University will make every reasonable effort to protect that right.

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Michigan State President Denies Disinvitation Attempt Against George Will

December 11, 2014

George Will, like too many other speakers, is no stranger to requests that he be disinvited from college campuses. In October, students at Scripps College in California successfully petitioned the college to rescind Will’s speaking invitation. Later that month, students and faculty at Miami University of Ohio attempted—and failed—to have Will disinvited from a campus engagement. Fortunately, Michigan State University (MSU) is following Miami University’s lead in standing by its invitation to Will, who is scheduled to speak at the university’s December commencement ceremony. On Tuesday, MSU President Lou Anna Simon responded to student demands that Will’s invitation to speak […]

At Miami University of Ohio, Students Engage in Debate, Not Disinvitation

October 24, 2014

All too often, FIRE’s message—that engaging in meaningful debate with controversial speakers is more useful than censoring them—falls on deaf ears. However, Miami University (OH) bucked the growing disinvitation trend by refusing to rescind its speaking invitation to columnist George Will, despite pressure to do so from students and faculty. By refusing to abandon its commitment to the marketplace of ideas, the university allowed debate to flourish on campus last night. This is welcome news, especially after Scripps College denied its students the opportunity to engage in meaningful debate by disinviting Will in response to his controversial column on sexual […]

Posting Policies Frequently Restrict Student Expression

October 30, 2012

This fall, FIRE is writing a blog series about how schools can reform their problematic speech codes and earn a “green light” rating from FIRE—a distinction currently awarded to just 16 of the more than 400 schools in our Spotlight database, but one we hope to be able to award to many more in the years to come. In this series, we are discussing common problems with campus speech codes, focusing on examples from schools that are just a few small changes away from earning a green light rating. So far, we have examined how universities restrict speech by mandating “civility,” […]

Insensitivity Is Not a Crime

November 7, 2007

At Miami University of Ohio, three student artists are under investigation, apparently with the possibility of punishment, for their pre-approved class project, which included “noose-like ropes” in a piece of art displayed on campus. Some viewers apparently interpreted the art in a way that made them feel offended, reminding them of actual nooses and lynchings. President David Hodge said in a letter to the campus that “I strongly condemn this display and deplore that in this campus community any person would believe this display is in any way acceptable.” Nick Gillespie at Reason.com reflects on the case: I find it […]