Location: Buffalo, New York
Website: http://www.buffalo.edu
Type: Public
Federal Circuit: 2nd Circuit
State University Of New York – University at Buffalo 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. Read more here.
Red Light Policies
Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 23, 2016Sexual harassment:
A. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
B. Unreasonably interfering with an individual’s performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive University environment.
C. Submission to or enduring such conduct when rejected is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of instruction, employment, or participation in other University activity.
Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Computer Abuse
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: June 23, 2016Theft or other abuse of computer time, including but not limited to: … Use of computing facilities and E-mail to send obscene or abusive messages.
Office of Judicial Affairs & Student Advocacy: Guidelines For Reporting Bias-Related Confrontations and Incidents
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: June 23, 2016An act of intolerance is any attempt to injure, harm, or harass a person because of race, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, or sexual orientation. Such behavior includes acts or attempts that may pose physical or psychological harm or threat to individuals, groups, the University, or the community.
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An act of intolerance differs from other acts of intimidation or criminal behavior because it is motivated by hatred of the characteristics or beliefs of the victim. Acts of intolerance are conscious, deliberate behaviors in contrast to insensitive acts, which may be the result of lack of awareness.
Picketing and Assembly: Designated Public Forums
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: June 23, 2016The University has designated the following areas for assemblies to gather:
North Campus
1. Founders Plaza
2. Student Activities Field
3. Grass area between Moody Terrace and Richmond B Lot
Other areas designated by the University President or his/her designee.
South Campus
4. Harriman Courtyard
5. Grass area SE of Hayes C, NW of Clark Hall
Other areas designated by the University President or his/her designee.
Black Out Dates:
1. University opening
2. University Commencement
3. Family Weekend
4. University Open Houses
Policy Library: Discrimination and Harassment Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 23, 2016Harassment – conduct that is unwelcome, severe, pervasive, or persistent enough to interfere with an individual’s employment, education, or other access to University programs and activities, and that is targeted toward an individual or group based on a protected factor, including race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, gender, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital status, veteran status, military status, domestic violence victim status, and ex-offender status; harassment is a form of discrimination.
Sexual Harassment – unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when: … such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive University environment.
Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Harassment
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: June 23, 201618. HARASSMENT
A. Threatening or intimidating a person creating a rational fear within that person.
B. Engaging in a course of conduct or repeatedly committing acts directed at another person which would seriously annoy a rational person.
C. Creating a condition which endangers or threatens the health, safety or welfare of another person.
D. Physically restraining or detaining another person, or removing any person from any place where he or she is authorized to remain
Student Code of Conduct: Preamble
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: June 23, 2016A university, especially a State University subject to constitutional requirements, must guarantee students the rights which the society and its laws protect. An American university guarantees its students these rights on a campus.
Statement on Freedom of Speech and Assembly
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: June 23, 2016Free speech and free assembly are fundamental to the concept of a university, which serves as a marketplace for the exchange of ideas and opinions and as a forum for the public expression of views. Some of the expressions may be counter to commonly-held or popular values, theories, and beliefs. The University at Buffalo (UB), as a public institution, has a special obligation to protect the First Amendment rights, of free speech and assembly, rights guaranteed by the federal and state constitutions.
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To fight bias, colleges are employing literal speech police
February 23, 2017
By Toni Airaksinen at USA Today When students see something that makes them uncomfortable, hurt or offended, on many campuses they can report that language to the administration — in particular, to something called a bias response team… Read more here.
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Conservative And Libertarian Messages Require High ‘Security Fees’ On Campus
June 10, 2015
By Matt Lamb at The College Fix ANALYSIS Restrictions on student speech, such as free speech zones, often hit groups across the ideological spectrum in roughly the same way. Conservative and libertarian groups, however, sometimes get an odd choice from campus administrators: You can speak, but it’ll cost you. Messages that could theoretically provoke violence because they stir up such strong emotions seem to be a favorite target of the pay-to-play option on campus. It’s only when watchdog groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervene that administrators back down, according to […]
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Buffalo State U. Student Govt BECLOWNED After Failed Press Censorship Gambit
April 5, 2015
By Eric Owens at The Daily Caller The petty tyrants who run the student government at the State University of New York College at Buffalo tried to freeze the student newspaper’s budget over a satirical April Fool’s Day edition. This censorship effort failed quickly, utterly and hilariously. The action began on Wednesday — April Fool’s Day — when student government officeholders at taxpayer-funded SUNY Buffalo State whimsically froze the budget of The Buffalo State Record, the campus newspaper. In the classic, almost trite, tradition at American college campuses, the newspaper had published an April 1 edition. It was called “The […]
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Administrators take heed: Don’t let others do your dirty work for you
June 13, 2017
Earlier this month, the State University of New York at Buffalo settled a lawsuit that was filed back in June 2013 by UB Students for Life, two student officers of UB Students for Life, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, and Center for Bio-Ethical Reform employees. As reported by The Buffalo News: The civil suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, accused UB of violating the free speech rights of pro-life advocates who organized the genocide rally and display outside the Student Union in April of 2013. The mural display featured images of aborted fetuses and linked abortion to the […]
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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, SUNY Buffalo State, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Norwich University, and Harvard Law School. As always, a key theme is students’ and administrators’ desire to shield themselves from uncomfortable speech or ideas. Regarding the incident at Harvard Law School, Harvey writes: The campus “disinvitation” trend forces […]
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Belief-Based Student Groups Score a Win at SUNY – Buffalo
August 15, 2012
For some time now, Vanderbilt University has been ground zero in the battle to decide whether belief-based student groups on college campuses will be allowed to make membership and leadership decisions that are influenced by their core beliefs. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, this has been a thorny legal issue, one that has come to a head at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt has taken a firm stance against student groups’ belief-based decisionmaking, enacting an extreme policy that even forbids religious groups from requiring their leaders to lead Bible studies, prayer, or worship. […]
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University at Buffalo Responds to Speech Code of the Month Inquiry
January 30, 2009
FIRE supporter and New York state resident Lee Brink recently wrote to University at Buffalo (also known as SUNY-Buffalo) President John Simpson to ask about the university residence halls’ Statement of Civility, which FIRE named our Speech Code of the Month for January 2009. The Statement of Civility provides that: Students are expected to act with civility. To be civil means to be courteous and polite or, simply put, to be mannerly. Acts of incivility — whether verbal, written, or physical — will not be tolerated by the Residential Life community. In an e-mail to President Simpson, Brink asked: What […]
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January 2009: University at Buffalo
January 6, 2009
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for January 2009: University at Buffalo (also known as SUNY Buffalo). According to the Statement of Civility in the university’s Guide to Residence Hall Living, Students are expected to act with civility. To be civil means to be courteous and polite or, simply put, to be mannerly. Acts of incivility — whether verbal, written, or physical — will not be tolerated by the Residential Life community. This policy impermissibly restricts students’ right to freely express themselves in the residence halls, which are the closest thing students have to their own homes while […]
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