School Spotlight
State University Of New York – University at Buffalo
Speech Code Rating
This school has adopted the chicago statement for free speech.
Student Life Gateway: Guidelines For Reporting Bias-Related Confrontations and Incidents
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: September 7, 2018An 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 MoreStudent Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Computer Abuse
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 7, 20188. COMPUTER ABUSE – … E. Use of computing facilities and/or e-mail to send obscene or abusive messages. Read MorePolicy Library: Discrimination and Harassment Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 7, 2018Harassment 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 MoreStatement of Freedom of Expression: Picketing and Assemblying
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: September 7, 2018The 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 MoreFreedom of Expression
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 7, 2018The 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 MoreFS Resolution on Freedom of Expression Statement for the University at Buffalo
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 7, 2018Whereas 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 MoreStudent Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Harassment
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 7, 201818. 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 MoreStudent Code of Conduct: Preamble
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 7, 2018A 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 MoreStudent Code of Conduct: Proscribed Conduct- Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 7, 2018Unwelcome 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
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
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