The Catholic University of America
Location: Washington, District Of Columbia
Website: http://www.cua.edu
Type: Private
Federal Circuit: DC circuit
Speech Code Rating
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Catholic University of America: Rejection of Campus NAACP Chapter
June 30, 2004
The Catholic University of America (CUA) denied official approval to a group of students wishing to start a campus chapter of the NAACP. Despite university policies that protect student freedoms of dissent and expression, CUA argued that the existence of two other minority groups on campus made the group unnecessary. Facing pressure from FIRE and a threat of litigation from the NAACP, CUA finally decided to officially recognize the campus chapter.
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Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Disorderly Conduct 09-10
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility, Statement
Disorderly Conduct:
Last updated: December 12, 2013
1. Acting in a manner to annoy, disturb, interfere with, obstruct or be offensive to another/others.Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Community Expectations and Student Responsibility 09-10
Speech Code Category: Other Speech Codes, Statement
Authentic Catholic community is born of deliberate ongoing commitment from every student to live in accordance with Catholic values and expectations. The Catholic University of America ("University" or "CUA"), is an academic community committed to research, teaching, learning, and service and acknowledges specific core values that characterize the University community in all of its activities. The ways in which the University community uniquely embodies these core values become trademarks of the CUA experience and an enduring part of the life of each and all of its members. Students who enroll at The Catholic University of America ("University") assume an obligation to conduct themselves in a manner compatible with the university’s interests as a Catholic educational institution.
Last updated: January 24, 2005Information Technology Computer Ethics 09-10
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies, Statement
The following are examples of conduct prohibited by this policy: ... Performing activities that inappropriately consume large amounts of CUA computing resources. Excessive uses of computer resources include sending, inappropriate or frivolous messages; running massive, inefficient programs; or printing multiple copies of documents or data. ... Viewing, sending or making available offensive explicit materials, unless such activity is appropriate for academic or work purposes. This includes materials which would tend to create a hostile environment.
Last updated: March 4, 2003Student Life Presentations Policy 09-10
Speech Code Category: Other Speech Codes, Statement
The university, operating within the framework of the foregoing, is committed to its various constituencies to avoid the following:
Last updated: March 4, 2003
1. blasphemy: the act of expressing irreverence for God or those things held sacred;
2. pornography: explicit sex lacking any artistic merit, portrayed in a vulgar and exploitative manner;
...
4. advocacy: meaning the act of pleading for, supporting, inciting or recommending active espousal of (as opposed to scholarly and abstract discourses), examining or questioning the legal, academic or moral propriety of the subject under discussion, constituting a clear and present danger of:
a. the violent overthrow of the government of the United States or any political subdivision thereof;
b. the destruction of, damage to, or the unlawful seizure or subversion of the university's buildings or other property;
c. the disruption, impairment or interference with the university's regularly scheduled classes or other educational functions;
d. coercion, threats, intimidations, blasphemy, defamation, physical harm or other invasions of the lawful rights of the members of the university community;
e. any campus disorder of a violent nature;
f. illegal acts constituting a deprivation of the civil or property rights of others.Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Harassment 09-10
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies, Statement
The following are examples of misconduct subject to disciplinary action: ... Any unsolicited, offensive behavior that inappropriately asserts sexuality over status as a student or an employee; unwelcome sexual advances; requests for sexual favors; and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: ... Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or educational performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work, living, or learning environment.
Last updated: December 15, 2013Student Handbook: Code of Student Conduct- Harassment 09-10
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies, Statement
The following are examples of misconduct subject to disciplinary action: ... Any actions, threats, gestures, and/or words directed toward another person which have the purpose or which tend to incite a breach of the peace, create a hostile environment, or cause emotional distress to that person because of the humiliating, degrading, intimidating, insulting, coercive, ridiculing, and/or alarming nature of the conduct. It frequently, but not always, involves a pattern of conduct.
Last updated: December 15, 2013
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Catholic University Reverses Decision on Student NAACP Chapter
October 14, 2004
(CNSNews.com) – The Catholic University of America (CUA) has reversed its decision to ban a chapter of the NAACP from its campus after calling it “unnecessary” because two other minority groups already existed on campus. NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume had threatened to sue the schools if it did not recognize the student NAACP chapter. Mfume called the school’s refusal “outright discrimination, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance all rolled into one. It is at the very least a double standard based on race and social philosophy.” The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a freedom of speech advocacy group […]
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Catholic U. Reverses Ban on NAACP Chapter, Avoiding Threatened Lawsuit
October 13, 2004
Catholic University of America has approved a request by students to form a campus chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, six months after turning them down. When the university initially rejected the request, officials cited two reasons. First, they said the NAACP’s support for abortion rights set it at odds with the Roman Catholic university’s staunchly anti-abortion philosophy. The officials also said that the existence of two other black-student groups on the campus made an NAACP chapter redundant. Only one other proposal for a new student group has been rejected in recent years, […]
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Thousands of Papers Go Missing at Catholic University; Editors Get Little Help from Administration, Police
April 7, 2009
A few days after breaking news of the brazen theft of a student newspaper at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, FIRE reports another such disheartening incident, this time at the Catholic University of America (CUA), where thousands of issues of the independent student newspaper The Tower were taken from their racks and thrown into recycling bins around the campus on the evening of Friday, March 27. Though students salvaged some of the issues (which you can see in this YouTube video), thus far no disciplinary charges have been brought in the more than ten days since the theft. Ryan […]
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Victory for Freedom at Catholic University of America
October 13, 2004
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 13, 2004—The Catholic University of America (CUA) has decided to officially recognize a campus chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). CUA administrators tried to justify their initial decision to deny the group recognition through claims that it was “unnecessary” because two other minority groups already existed on campus. Facing pressure from national media attention brought by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and a threat of litigation from the NAACP, CUA’s reversal signals that it is now prepared to honor its own policies protecting and promoting student freedoms of […]
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