School Spotlight

State University Of New York – University at Buffalo

Location: Buffalo, New York
Type: Public
Tell State University Of New York – University at Buffalo to revise its speech policies by filling out this form.

Speech Code Rating

State University Of New York – University at Buffalo has been given the speech code rating Yellow. Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application. Read more
This school has adopted the chicago statement for free speech. This school has adopted the chicago statement for free speech. This school has adopted the chicago statement for free speech.

  • Student Life Gateway: Guidelines For Reporting Bias-Related Confrontations and Incidents

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    An act of intolerance is any attempt to injure, harm or harass a person because of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, gender, pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital status, familial status, veteran status, military s... Read More

  • Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Computer Abuse

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    8. COMPUTER ABUSE – … E. Use of computing facilities and/or e-mail to send obscene or abusive messages. Read More

  • Policy Library: Discrimination and Harassment Policy

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    Harassment 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, s... Read More

  • Statement of Freedom of Expression: Picketing and Assemblying

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    The University supports individual’s rights to assemble. Public assemblies (protests, picketing, etc.) are allowed. Those members of the University community who feel compelled to express their dissent through picketing and other forms of demonstration must adhere to the following parameters: (a) Picketing and... Read More

  • Freedom of Expression

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    The University at Buffalo strives to create an environment in which diverse opinions can be expressed and heard.  As a public university, it is a fundamental value of UB that all members of the campus community and their invited guests have a right to peacefully express their views and opinions, regardless of whethe... Read More

  • FS Resolution on Freedom of Expression Statement for the University at Buffalo

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    Whereas the University at Buffalo is a public forum for ideas, some of them unpleasant to many and many of them unpleasant to some, Therefore be it resolved that because the University at Buffalo (UB), SUNY is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, it guarantees all members of the University community th... Read More

  • Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Harassment

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    18. 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, safet... Read More

  • Student Code of Conduct: Preamble

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    A 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. Read More

  • Student Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Sexual Harassment

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 7, 2018

    Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that unreasonably interferes with an individual’s performance and/or access to educational opportunity by creating an intimidating, hostile, or objectively offensive University environment. Read More
At present, FIRE has not been involved in any cases at this school.

  • University at Buffalo may lose Student Defender program

    May 15, 2019

    Students at the State University of New York at Buffalo are on the verge of losing a key resource dedicated to protecting their rights: their Student Defender Program. UB student newspaper, The Spectrum, reports that on July 1, the university will transfer control over student fees from a 49-year-old student-owned organization, Sub-Board I, to a… Read more

  • University at Buffalo’s student government locks out student journalists

    March 19, 2019

    Students at the University at Buffalo received a crash course in petty authoritarianism last week when student journalists for The Spectrum, UB’s award-winning independent student newspaper, were denied access to a student event following a dispute with student government leaders about the tone of the paper’s coverage. The facts are straightforward. Members of the Student… Read more

  • Report: Despite student’s successful lawsuit, due process concerns remain at SUNY Buffalo

    November 13, 2018

    In July, a New York state appellate court ruled that the State University of New York at Buffalo violated a student’s due process rights when it disciplined him for harassment and weapons possession without “any evidence, much less substantial evidence,” of his guilt. The plaintiff in the case, Tyrone Hill, alleged that he was the… Read more

  • New York court chastises University at Buffalo in ruling for student in due process case

    July 12, 2018

    On July 6, a New York court ruled that the State University of New York at Buffalo violated the due process rights of a student found responsible for misconduct by the school. The decision criticizes UB’s failure to afford due process rights and reminds universities of the importance of ensuring fundamental fairness in their disciplinary… Read more

  • 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… 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

  • 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… Read more

  • 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… Read more

  • 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…. Read more