School Spotlight
Sam Houston State University
Speech Code Rating
Residence Life Student Handbook: Windows
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Students who place items in windows that the University determines to be obscene will be asked to remove the items immediately and may be subject to disciplinary action. The University reserves the right to enter a student’s room/apartment to remove items that are found obscene if the student is not present during t... Read MoreIT-03: Acceptable Use Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020All individuals are accountable for their actions relating to SHSU information technology resources. Direct violations include the following: … Using SHSU information technology resources for political gain. Read MoreStudent Guidelines: Code of Student Conduct and Discipline
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Harassment where the individual threatens or bullies, in person, by telephone, electronically, in writing, or by other means, to take unlawful action against any person and by this action intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly annoys or alarms the recipient; … Read MoreStudent Guidelines: Posting and Distribution of Printed Materials
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Students and officially recognized student organizations may post printed material on designated campus bulletin boards with stamped approval of the Department of Leadership Initiatives. … Posted materials must identify campus affiliate, sponsoring organization, or individual student. Read MoreDean of Students: Expressive Activity- Get Informed
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Harassment is conduct sufficiently severe, pervasive, or persistent that the conduct creates a hostile environment substantially impairing a person’s access to university programs or activities. Read MoreTexas State University System Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Sexual harassment means unwelcome, sex-based verbal or physical conduct that: … in the education context, is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that the conduct interferes with a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from educational programs or activities at a postsecondary education... Read MoreResidence Life Student Handbook: Harassment/Bullying
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020Harassment is not tolerated and will result in disciplinary action which may include loss of University housing. “Harassment” is defined as verbal threats, intimidation, or conduct which are severe or pervasive enough to substantially interfere with a reasonable student’s educational performance, opportunities or be... Read MoreStudent Guidelines: Code of Student Conduct and Discipline
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 24, 2020Campus disruptive activities (see subparagraph 5.4) or disorderly conduct on Component-owned or controlled property or at a Component-sponsored or supervised function that inhibit or interfere with the educational responsibility of the Component community or the Component’s social-educational activities shall includ... Read MoreStudent Guidelines: Publications of Student Groups
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 24, 2020The university affirms its position that freedom of expression, as well as inquiry, is essential to a student’s educational development. Vigorous intellectual explorations by students may sometimes result in questioning of popular conceptions, and this in turn, may elicit the concern of society at large. One of the ... Read MoreStudent Guidelines: Racial Harassment Policy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 24, 2020“Racial Harassment” is defined as extreme or outrageous acts or communications that are intended to harass, intimidate, or humiliate students, faculty, staff, or visitors on account of race, color, or national origin and that reasonably cause them to suffer severe emotional distress. Read More
Sam Houston State University: Graduate Student Dismissed After Tweeting About Mistreatment
June 3, 2021
In the fall of 2020, student Phelan Dickerson was denied formal candidacy in Sam Houston’s Counselor Education master’s program because of her candid attitude and propensity to speak up when she believed changes needed to be made in her program. In March 2021, after being forced to work through a remediation plan, Dickerson was granted… Read more
Sam Houston State University: Faculty Member Takes Box Cutter to Students’ Free Speech Wall; Police Threaten Students with Misdemeanor
September 23, 2011
On September 22, 2011, the student groups SHSU Lovers of Liberty, Bearkat Democrats, Young Democratic Socialists, and College Republicans sponsored the display of a “free speech wall,” on which students were invited to write any message they wanted. When SHSU Professor Joe E. Kirk saw that someone had written “FUCK OBAMA” on the wall, he… Read more
She spoke up when a professor wronged her. Then Sam Houston State expelled her.
June 4, 2021
Update (June 17, 2021): After FIRE sent a second letter to Sam Houston State, the university reversed its decision, allowing Dickerson to continue her degree program. While the ordeal cost Dickerson a semester, we are pleased that she will not continue to be punished for her expression. Graduate student Phelan Dickerson has had a long… Read more
Update: Citing First Amendment, SHSU Won’t Punish Student for Tweet
September 8, 2015
Sam Houston State University says it will not take action against a student whose controversial tweet stirred internet outrage, including calls for the school to punish her, because the tweet is protected by the First Amendment. SHSU President Dana Hoyt said student Monica Foy’s now-deleted tweet questioning what slain Texas deputy Darren Goforth did to… Read more
Sam Houston State University Caves to Internet Mob, Promises to Investigate Student for Tweet
September 2, 2015
You might remember that at the end of last year, FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff dubbed 2014 “The Year of the Heckler.” There’s still a ways to go with 2015, but recent events are making a compelling case to dub it “The Year of the Tattler.” We recently publicized, for instance, that Texas Christian… Read more
Student at IU Attempts to Censor Fellow Students by Vandalizing Pro-Life Display
October 1, 2013
FIRE often exposes how colleges censor students—but last week, it was a student at Indiana University who decided to engage in some vigilante censorship by vandalizing a pro-life display. According to a student account, new student organization Students for Life at IU intended to have a peaceful demonstration on campus as part of an organized protest dubbed the “Planned… Read more
Robert Shibley on ‘Cam & Co.’ Tonight with Morgan Freeman!
October 2, 2012
In case you missed it, FIRE released a new video yesterday that’s making quite an impact! In it, Sam Houston State University student Morgan Freeman tells the shocking story of the free speech wall she organized along with four campus groups: how a professor literally cut out an anti-Obama comment with a utility knife and,… Read more
Need More Reasons to Watch FIRE’s Latest Video?
October 1, 2012
Hopefully you don’t need us to give you more reasons to watch FIRE’s newest video about the shocking censorship last year at Sam Houston State University, where a professor used a box cutter to remove profanity from a student-sponsored “free speech wall.” In case you do, though, FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff and Robert Shibley have a… Read more
New FIRE Video: College Professor Censors Anti-Obama Comment on Free Speech Wall
October 1, 2012
Last year, college censorship took a turn for the ridiculous when a professor at Sam Houston State University vandalized a student-sponsored “free speech wall” with a box-cutting knife to remove anti-President Obama speech he didn’t like. When the students complained about the vandalism to the campus police, the police took the professor’s side and demanded… Read more
Thomas Jefferson Center Awards “Muzzles” to Censors at Catawba Valley, Sam Houston State
April 12, 2012
Every year since 1992, the good folks at the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression award their annual "Jefferson Muzzles" to recognize those across the nation "who in the preceding year committed some of the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to the First Amendment right of free speech." And just about every… Read more
Sam Houston State Social Media Policy One of Most Read Stories of 2011 in ‘Chronicle’ List
December 21, 2011
Wired Campus, a technology-themed blog of The Chronicle of Higher Education, has published its “10 Most Popular Wired Campus Articles of 2011” list this week. Seventh on the list is an October feature on Sam Houston State University’s controversial social media policy, which sparked waves of student protest at SHSU, including a “free speech wall”… Read more
More on Sam Houston State Dropping Creepy Social Media Policy
December 19, 2011
Last week, eCampusNews drew attention to the news of Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) decision to ditch its proposed social media policy. The policy, which would have required any student group bearing the SHSU name to join the university’s "social media universe," was the subject of controversy and student protest. Under the proposed rule, those… Read more
Sam Houston State University Throws Out Controversial Social Media Policy
November 17, 2011
Last month, FIRE announced via a national press release that a professor at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) had used a box cutter to cut an insult against President Obama out of a "free speech wall" promoted by four student organizations across the political spectrum. The free speech wall had been erected (with permission from SHSU)… Read more
Restrictive Social Media Policy at Sam Houston State U. Exposed at ‘eCampus News’
October 7, 2011
The website eCampus News has reported on the dual controversies swirling around Sam Houston State University (SHSU): the university’s deeply restrictive proposed social media policy and its outrageous censorship of a student "free speech wall." The site’s Dennis Carter writes: The student backlash to the new policies culminated Sept. 22 when the disparate campus political groups… Read more
Professor Takes Box Cutter to Students’ Free Speech Wall at Sam Houston State University; Police Threaten Students with Charges over Profanity about President Obama
October 6, 2011
HOUSTON, Oct. 6, 2011—Two weeks ago, a professor at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) used a box cutter to cut an insult against President Obama out of a “free speech wall” promoted by four student organizations. When campus police arrived, an officer demanded that the students censor the wall or else face criminal charges for… Read more
Speech Code of the Month: Sam Houston State University
October 3, 2011
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for October 2011: Sam Houston State University in Texas. Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) Code of Student Conduct [.pdf] prohibits, as disorderly conduct, the use of “abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language.” While a policy like this may seem at first blush to prohibit only low-value speech, FIRE’s… Read more
SHSU Students Protest Social Media Policy With Signs, Slogans, and ‘Censored Free Speech Wall’
October 3, 2011
Photo by The Huntsville Item The fight for free speech continues at Sam Houston State University, where nearly a dozen students congregated in the center of campus last Wednesday in protest of SHSU’s new Social Media Policy and Procedures Manual. The event also served to protest the actions of professor Joe Kirk and the SHSU… Read more
At Sam Houston State University, Debate Over New Social Media Policy Rages On
September 28, 2011
Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) proposed Social Media Policy and Procedures Manual is receiving anything but a warm welcome from students on campus. Opposition to the proposition has emerged in the form of protests planned today for the campus’ mall area, with the main event being a "censored free speech wall" that Morgan Freeman, president… Read more
SHSU President Says Free Speech Wall Vandalism by Professor ‘Under Investigation’
September 27, 2011
The past few days have brought public scrutiny to bear on Sam Houston State University (SHSU) after its police department not only failed to address student complaints over a professor’s vandalism—with a box cutter—of their "free speech wall," but also threatened to charge the students with disorderly conduct on the basis of four-letter words written on the… Read more
Sam Houston State University Student Newspaper on Free Speech Wall Vandalism
September 27, 2011
Today, The Houstonian, a student newspaper at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), has a thorough article about the vigilante censorship of four student groups’ "Free Speech Wall" by SHSU professor Joe Kirk, and FIRE’s efforts on behalf of the wronged students. The article points out that student Morgan Freeman has filed a complaint about the vandalism… Read more
Morgan Freeman, Student Censored in ‘Box Cutter’ Case, Speaks Out
September 26, 2011
Morgan Freeman, a student at Sam Houston State University and leader of the SHSU Lovers of Liberty, writes today on the Students for Liberty blog about her group’s experience with Kafkaesque campus censorship. As we reported on The Torch last week, when a professor took a box cutter to the group’s free speech wall, they… Read more
In ‘Daily Caller,’ Robert Rips on Sam Houston State ‘Box Cutter’ Case
September 23, 2011
FIRE has been quick to act on a ridiculous free speech case at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where a professor took it upon himself to vandalize student speech on a "free speech wall" with no less than a box cutter. As Adam wrote earlier, we have already sent a letter to SHSU President Dana L. Gibson, informing President… Read more
Professor Cuts Out Insult to Obama on Students’ ‘Free Speech Wall’ with Box Cutter; Police Threaten Students with Misdemeanor for Public Profanity
September 23, 2011
Sometimes here at FIRE we think we’ve seen it all. Yesterday, however, we were shocked by the outrageous violations of free speech at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). To protest a controversial new social media policy, four SHSU student groups organized a "free speech wall," a large field of paper with a wooden frame, upon… Read more
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