California: Unconstitutional Discriminatory Harassment Policies

August 1, 2009

San Diego State University: Censorship of Pro-American Student Speech

October 23, 2001

Zewdalem Kebede, an international student at San Diego State University, verbally engaged several students when he observed them expressing a pro-terrorist position in Arabic. Although Kebede was never formally charged, he was warned that future "abusive" incidents would result in, "serious disciplinary action." FIRE responded with a letter to UCSD President Stephen Weber.

Standards for Student Conduct

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Students are expected to be good citizens and to engage in responsible behaviors that reflect well upon their university, to be civil to one another and to others in the campus community, and contribute positively to student and university life.

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Housing and Residential Education Policies & Regulations: Physical Abuse and Harassment

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Abusive physical and verbal behavior, and threats of physical abuse toward residents, guests, or staff, are violations of policy and will not be tolerated. Such conduct may be grounds for immediate judicial action, removal from the residence hall, eviction, and/or criminal prosecution. Examples of prohibited conduct include, but are not limited to sexual and racial harassment, threats of violence, sexual assault, fighting, punching, slapping, kicking, scratching and pushing. Practical jokes and pranks or other disruptions are prohibited in the campus community.

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Executive Order 1097: Systemwide Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, Sexual Misconduct, Dating and Domestic Violence, and Stalking against Students and Systemwide Procedure for Addressing Such Complaints by Students

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Harassment means unwelcome conduct, based on the Complainant’s Protected Status, that is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that its effect, whether or not intended, could be considered by a reasonable person in the shoes of the Complainant, and is in fact considered by the Complainant, as limiting her/his ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or opportunities offered by the University.

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Sexual Harassment, a form of Sex Discrimination, is unwelcome verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that includes but is not limited to sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and any other conduct of a sexual nature where:

1. Submission to, or rejection of, the conduct is explicitly or implicitly used as the basis for any decision affecting a Complainant’s academic status or progress, or access to benefits and services, honors, programs, or activities available at or through the University; or

2. The conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that its effect, whether or not intended, could be considered by a reasonable person in the shoes of the Complainant, and is in fact considered by the Complainant, as limiting his or her ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or opportunities offered by the University; or

3. The conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that its effect, whether or not intended, could be considered by a reasonable person in the shoes of the Complainant, and is in fact considered by the Complainant, as creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.

Sexual Harassment could include being forced to engage in unwanted sexual contact as a condition of membership in a student organization; being subjected to video exploitation or a campaign of sexually explicit graffiti; or frequently being exposed to unwanted images of a sexual nature in a classroom that are unrelated to the coursework.

Sexual Harassment also includes acts of verbal, non-verbal or physical aggression, intimidation or hostility based on Gender or sex-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature.

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Office of Employee Relations & Compliance: Sexual Harassment

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Sexual harassment shall be any conduct, physical or verbal, that is sexual and has the effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s or a group’s educational or work performance or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or abusive educational or work environment.

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The California Education Code, sec. 212.5, states: “Sexual harassment means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, made by someone from or in the work or educational setting, under any of the following conditions:” … “The conduct has the purpose or effect of having a negative impact upon the individual’s work or academic performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or educational environment.”

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Examples of sexually harassing conduct may include but shall not be limited to the following: (a) sexual assault, (b) derogatory comments of a sexual nature, (c) displaying sexually suggestive pictures or objects, (d) graphic verbal commentaries about a person’s body, (e) impeding or blocking movements, (f) jokes of a sexual nature, (g) slurs of a sexual nature, (h) suggestive gestures, (i) unwelcome touching. Some of these examples may not, however, constitute sexual harassment if appropriate to reasonable academic purposes.

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Student Organization Handbook: Harassment and Abusive Behavior

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Officially recognized organizations may not engage in any organizational activity that makes specific members of the campus community the subject of harassment, intimidation, or hostility because of their race, religion, color, ethnicity, citizenship, gender, gender identity or expression, disability, sexual orientation, or national origin.

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Student Responsibilities for Academic Computer Use

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Communication through electronic mail should be encouraged and supported in the same manner as in classrooms, publications, and correspondence through standard hard copy mail. Professional codes of conduct shall prevail, and users shall adhere to standards of civil communication.

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Standards for Student Conduct

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Use of computing facilities and resource to send obscene or intimidating and abusive messages.

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Standards for Student Conduct

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 22, 2016

Conduct that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person within or related to the University community, including

1. physical abuse, threats, intimidation, or harassment.

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SDSU Pledges to Curtail Speech in the Name of Safety

May 4, 2016

By Peter Fricke at Campus Reform San Diego State University has agreed to review its speech policies to ensure they are in “balance” with anti-harassment policies following protests over posters critical of Palestinian student groups… Read more here.

UCSD Called Among Worst for Free Speech

February 18, 2016

By Gary Warth at The San Diego Union-Tribune LA JOLLA — A free-speech advocacy group has named UC San Diego one of the nation’s 10 worst schools for free speech following the student government’s decision to cut funding to a controversial satirical publication. Read more here.

Environment at SDSU Fosters Free Speech

August 20, 2015

By U-T Letters at The San Diego Union-Tribune In a recent article about “free speech zones” at universities (“Free speech group eyes school policies,” Aug. 12), the U-T reported a claim that San Diego State University follows CSU system policies that are “vague and open to abuse.” We strongly disagree with this statement. Our freedom of expression policy “supports and promotes freedom of expression and assembly throughout the campus by students, faculty, staff and the general public.” There are no specified free-speech zones at SDSU. And, SDSU’s housing and residential education policy balances students’ safety while protecting freedom of expression. […]

Free-Speech Group Eyes School Policies

August 12, 2015

By Gary Warth at The San Diego Union Tribune A free-speech advocacy group that recently settled lawsuits against two California schools has similar concerns with other state universities, including Cal State San Marcos, San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. While no lawsuits or specific complaints have been filed against those universities by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the Philadelphia-based group has identified them as among many schools that have policies it identifies as vague and open to abuse. “These policies a lot of times are well-intended, but they have the potential of chilling […]

Justice Elusive in San Diego State Sexual Assault Case

November 6, 2014

By Angela Carone at KPBS It was after midnight on a Friday in September 2007 when Jennifer ran out of the Sigma Pi fraternity house onto the street near the campus of San Diego State University. A 20-year-old junior at SDSU, she was crying and frantic. She was barefoot and didn’t have a purse. She didn’t care. She was trying to get away. She thought her boyfriend was chasing her, something he “always did.” They’d been together for nine months; he lived in the house. He’d choked her in the past. The night before, Jennifer says she’d experienced his most […]

San Diego State’s President Talks A Good Game On Free Speech- But That’s All

October 30, 2014

By Greg Piper at The College Fix The president of San Diego State University, Elliot Hirshman, penned a laudable article for the Huffington Post about the importance of free speech on college campuses. Now he just needs to make his own institution practice what it preaches. Hirshman starts his piece in an odd way, implying that university policies in general uphold the principles of free speech, which is laughably naive: Our policy on free expression at San Diego State University is similar to those at universities and colleges across the nation. He calls it “critical to present a range of perspectives so students can understand issues […]

The protected flag

March 8, 2007

What is quite possibly the strangest flag-desecration controversy in American history is afoot right now at San Francisco State University. It’s strange for several reasons, firstly because the right to torch, stomp, or otherwise annihilate a flag was asserted nearly 18 years ago by the Supreme Court in Johnson v. Texas, and should be pretty much settled by now. Not here, though, where a chapter of College Republicans could be disbanded for allegedly inciting hostility via an act of flag desecration. Their hearing is this Friday. The whole event is stranger still because the flags in question are not American […]

College Athletes Caught in Tangled Web

May 24, 2006

Four San Diego State students recently logged on to a computer and did what thousands of other college students do these days during their spare time. They were having fun on MySpace.com, posting personal party pictures and commentaries about life in college. Some included references to drinking alcoholic beverages and snide remarks about recent soccer practices, according to a student colleague of the four. But because the four students were athletes – in this case women’s soccer players – they suffered a penalty for it. When they didn’t heed their coach’s warning to stop posting on the site, they were […]

Free speech policy called into question

October 24, 2005

As an American citizen, one has a constitutional right to have and state opinions, but officials at college campuses around the country say there is a time and a place for it. This issue is not foreign to San Diego State. Free speech zones began to appear on college campuses during the 1980s as a way for university administrators to allow students to voice their opinions and put on demonstrations without inhibiting the surrounding learning environment, according to a May 2003 Associated Press article ,”Schools under fire for ‘free speech zones.’” But many believe the idea of “free-speech zones” on […]

Codes censor speech

September 1, 2005

Given the section you are reading, it should come as no surprise that I describe myself as a very opinionated person. But, as somewhat of a pessimist, my columns usually focus on what’s wrong with policy X or ideology Y, and my usual targets are conservative, right-wing issues. I tend to focus on criticizing the right-wing because of its current political prominence. However, I have a confession to make: There are many liberal left-wing ideas I’m equally unimpressed with, but haven’t written about. For example, I disapprove of gay adoptions, believe immigration laws should be inflexible and feel popular feminists […]

Academic freedom ever important

April 11, 2005

Besides really irritating a lot of people, University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill’s essay on the causes of the World Trade Center attacks has put a media spotlight on the issue of freedom of expression on college campuses. This in itself is a very good thing. Whatever one’s opinion of the content of Churchill’s essay (and some of the logic does sound highly suspect to me), he was well within his rights to release a controversial analysis of the attacks into the academic community. This ability to participate in an unrestricted exchange of ideas is called academic freedom, and it […]

Students Cry Racism Take Copies Off Racks

November 1, 2002

Helping Students Fight Back

September 15, 2002

Is Free Speech Free Again?

January 10, 2002

Thought Police Spring to Action on the Campus

November 26, 2001

Suppression of Speech on Campus (Web exclusive)

November 6, 2001

Meet the New Boss… Same as the Old Boss

November 4, 2001

The Death of Free Speech in Higher Ed

October 31, 2001

Speech Codes on Campus

October 31, 2001

School Warns Man Who Rebuked Saudis

October 25, 2001

Student: Attack praised

October 17, 2001

Don’t Tread on Free-speakers

September 5, 2001

Supreme Court Declines Cert in ‘Alpha Delta,’ Allowing Ninth Circuit’s Unfortunate Ruling to Stand

March 21, 2012

This week, the Supreme Court of the United States decided not to grant certiorari in the case of Alpha Delta v. Reed, declining the appeal request of two religious student organizations at San Diego State University (SDSU). The Supreme Court’s decision lets stand a 2011 ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that found SDSU not to have violated the First Amendment rights of the student groups, a Christian fraternity and sorority, by denying them official recognition. The Ninth Circuit held that the university’s actions, under a determination that the groups’ requirement that members share […]

A Roundup of 2011’s Free Speech Case Law

December 28, 2011

While FIRE has won numerous victories this year in working to protect individual rights on college campuses, 2011 was a mixed year for the defense of students’ rights by the courts. Importantly, this year highlighted divergent theories of the First Amendment rights of students off campus. While some courts have held that schools are limited by the First Amendment in what they can regulate off campus, other courts this year held that things students say off campus can have almost unlimited disciplinary consequences on campus. This is a troubling trend, outlined in several cases below. In June, the United States […]

SDSU Speech Codes Highlighted in ‘The Daily Aztec’

October 28, 2011

In an insightful piece this week, San Diego State University (SDSU) student and The Daily Aztec managing editor Beth Elderkin investigates two of SDSU’s several “yellow light” speech codes. Elderkin interviewed our own Will Creeley, as well as UCLA law professor and constitutional law expert Eugene Volokh, who agree that the two policies in question are problematic: According to FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy, Will Creeley, the problem with the two harassment and abuse policies is certain words are too ambiguous. This is something UC Los Angeles constitutional law professor Eugene Volokh said could lead to a violation of […]

Christian Legal Society Chapter Settles Freedom of Association Lawsuit with University of Montana School of Law

August 18, 2011

Less than two weeks ago, we reported on a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that held that San Diego State University did not violate the First Amendment right to freedom of association of two student groups, a fraternity and a sorority, by denying those groups official recognition (and the attendant benefits of recognition) for allegedly violating the school’s nondiscrimination policy. The case, Alpha Delta v. Reed (.PDF), was merely the latest to test whether an expressive student organization at a public university has the right to restrict membership and leadership to those students […]

San Diego State University Upgraded From ‘Red Light’ Status

August 17, 2011

San Diego State University (SDSU) has been upgraded by FIRE from a “red light” to a “yellow light” school, reports the student newspaper The Daily Aztec. The change comes as the result of the complete removal of a policy that heavily restricted the content of emails sent via SDSU’s network or computers. The former policy banned the transmission of “unsolicited information which contains obscene, offensive or discriminatory material” and “inappropriate” mailing list entries. In so doing, the former policy prohibited a substantial amount of speech that SDSU, as a public university, is legally bound to protect under the First Amendment. We […]

‘California Watch’: No Free Speech at California Colleges

January 7, 2011

Free speech is not safe at California colleges—not by a long shot. That’s what investigative reporter Erica Perez found in FIRE’s 2011 speech code report, as she wrote yesterday for California Watch: A new report from a national free speech advocacy organization found most of the four-year universities it surveyed had speech codes that substantially limit students’ freedom of speech, including dozens of colleges in California. […] Of the 33 California universities the organization rated, 64 percent got a red light, including San Diego State University, UC Santa Cruz and Claremont McKenna College. About 36 percent got a yellow light, including UC Berkeley, Occidental College and San Jose State University. […]

What 9/11 Taught Us About Academia

September 11, 2006

Today, FIRE joins the rest of the nation in remembering the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Five years ago, the events of 9/11 highlighted—in a very ugly way—just how out of touch many universities are with the American public. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when much of America was still in mourning, a number of very prominent universities moved swiftly to suppress displays of public sympathy and patriotism by students and faculty. Here are some examples of university actions in September and October 2001: At Central Michigan University, an administrator told several students to remove various patriotic posters […]