School Spotlight
Northeastern University
Location:
Boston, Massachusetts
Type:
Private
Speech Code Rating
Northeastern University has been given the speech code rating Red. A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.
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Center for Student Involvement: Resources- Demonstration Policy
Speech Code Rating: Red
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021This policy applies to demonstrations on University property or in connection with University events. This policy applies to all University faculty, staff, students, vendors, volunteers and visitors. … No person or organization shall hold, cause or permit to be held a demonstration on University property or in... Read MoreStudent Handbook: Appropriate Use of Computer and Network Resources Policies
Speech Code Rating: Red
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021In addition to all of the requirements of this Policy, it is specifically prohibited to use Northeastern University information systems to: Harass, threaten, defame, slander, or intimidate any individual or group; Generate and/or spread intolerant or hateful material, which in the sole judgment of the University is... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Bias-Related Incidents
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: April 1, 2021Conduct, prohibited by this Code, may include, but is not limited to harassment, bullying, abuse of others, disorderly conduct, and vandalism that is motivated in whole or part by prejudice toward an individual’s or group’s real or perceived race, color, religion, religious creed, genetics, sex, gender identity, sex... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Misuse of Electronic Resources
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021Misuse of electronic systems or methods (for example, email, “hacking,” etc.) to steal, misrepresent, threaten, harass, or bully (including online aggression or cyberbullying), or violations of the Appropriate Use of Computer and Network Resources Policy (pages 41–50) and/or any other computer or system use. Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021Repeated and/or continuing unwanted behavior, coercion, or intimidation of an individual or group, either directly or indirectly. Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Bullying
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021A verbal, electronic, or physical act or gesture, or the repeated use of written, verbal, or electronic expression or communication, or any combination thereof that (i) causes or is intended to cause physical, psychological, and/or emotional harm to another person or damage to property; (ii) places a University comm... Read MorePolicy Prohibiting Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021Gender-Based Harassment includes harassment based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression that has the purpose or effect of creating a hostile living, learning, or working environment. Read MorePolicy on Rights and Responsibilities Under Title IX
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: April 1, 2021Sexual harassment means conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following: … Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person standard to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the university’s education program or activit... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: General Expectations
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: April 1, 2021As citizens and as members of an academic community, students enjoy the same basic privileges and are bound by the same responsibilities as all citizens. … It is recognized that all members of an academic community, individually and collectively, have a right to express their views publicly on any issue … Read MoreStudent Handbook: Demonstrations
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: April 1, 2021The University supports the rights of University students to express their views and to protest actions or opinions with which there is disagreement. A university is where individuals express diverse ideas and viewpoints. Read More
Policies are rated on their inclusion of 10 due process safeguards. Each policy may receive 2 points for fully including that safeguard, 1 point for partial inclusion, and 0 points for no meaningful inclusion. Most, but not all, institutions have separate policies for sexual misconduct and all other misconduct. See FIRE’s Spotlight on Due Process report for more information.
Grades
Northeastern goes too far threatening incoming freshmen who answered ‘Hell Yeah’ to partying survey
August 24, 2020
Northeastern University has threatened to rescind the admission of more than 100 incoming freshmen because they responded “Hell Yeah” to another student’s Instagram survey asking whether they were interested in attending or hosting parties in the fall. Boston’s WGBH reported additional details: After a student posted a survey on Instagram asking incoming students whether they… Read more
Speech Code of the Month: Northeastern University
November 1, 2018
The way Americans consume news has shifted dramatically over the past few years. According to Pew Research Center Fact Tank analysis from 2017, 94 percent of 18-29 year-olds get news on mobile devices, while in 2013 that number was just 75 percent. Another Pew Research Center report found that more than half of smartphone users… Read more
FIRE Chairman Calls Out Northeast Colleges in Annual ‘Muzzle Awards’
July 6, 2015
Each summer for the past eighteen years, FIRE Co-founder and Chairman Harvey Silverglate has announced the winners of his annual “Campus Muzzle Awards”: colleges and universities in the Northeast stifling campus discourse in particularly outrageous ways. Along with myself and fellow research assistant Timothy Moore, this year, Harvey has written about incidents at Brown University,… Read more
Boston’s WGBH Announces Muzzle Award ‘Winners’
July 9, 2014
Boston’s WGBH News has just announced the “winners” of its 2014 Muzzle Awards, given to those who have particularly impeded freedom of speech over the past year. Formerly published in the Boston Phoenix, WGBH has adopted the awards and is continuing the tradition of “singl[ing] out the dramatic and the petty, the epic and the absurd.”
‘Globe’ Columnist: Northeastern Censorship Squelches Speech, Learning
March 31, 2014
Joan Vennochi has a brilliant column in ‘The Boston Globe’ about Northeastern University’s suspension of its campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Not only does Vennochi quickly dismantle all of the university’s excuses for the suspension, she also gets to the heart of why so many universities are so quick to squelch campus protests.
Free Speech Concerns Swirl Around Northeastern University’s Suspension of Pro-Palestinian Group
March 14, 2014
In recent days, FIRE has been following the story—reported today by The Boston Globe—that Northeastern University has suspended the group Northeastern Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for reasons that seem largely related to the group’s expression.
Students Protest Northeastern U.’s Demonstration Policy
August 12, 2013
Earlier this summer on The Torch, we reported on a controversy at Northeastern University surrounding the school’s requirement that student organizations obtain a permit at least seven days in advance of campus protests. After the student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was sanctioned for a walkout-style demonstration at a talk by Israeli soldiers,… Read more
Creeley in ‘Boston Globe’: Northeastern U’s Requirements Stifle Free Expression
June 13, 2013
Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote today to criticize Northeastern University’s inconsistent handling of student protests by pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students. The controversy centers on Northeastern’s requirement that student groups obtain a permit at least seven days in advance of protests. But Abraham questions whether the requirement was the real reason for sanctioning the school’s… Read more
Northeastern Student Speaks Out; FIRE Responds
June 13, 2007
In response to my blog entry about Northeastern’s speech code, Northeastern undergraduate Daniel Kamyck sent us the following comment: While I enjoy keeping aware of FIRE’s work across the country, and though I support the defense of individual rights in an academic setting, I’m disappointed that FIRE has chosen to ridicule the Acceptable Use Policy… Read more
Northeastern University: Students Question, Administration Defends Speech Code
June 8, 2007
Northeastern University’s student newspaper, The Northeastern News, recently did a feature story on Northeastern’s Appropriate Use Policy, which makes punishable any e-mail “which in the sole judgment of the University is offensive.” FIRE was so appalled by this policy that we named it our February 2007 Speech Code of the Month, and now it seems… Read more
Today’s ‘Campus Alert’: Don’t Laugh Too Hard
May 21, 2007
Our weekly Campus Alert column in the New York Post focuses today on speech codes at Drexel University, Northeastern University, and Johns Hopkins University—all of which have been named FIRE’s Speech Code of the Month for banning constitutionally protected expression on their respective campuses. Drexel, which was given the dubious honor of being recognized… Read more
Speech Code of the Month: Northeastern University
February 2, 2007
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for February 2007: Northeastern University in Boston. We would like to congratulate Northeastern on being named one of America’s Top 100 National Universities by U.S. News & World Report this past summer. On behalf of everyone at FIRE, welcome to our radar screen!* Northeastern’s Appropriate Use of… Read more