School Spotlight

University of Arkansas – Fayetteville

Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Type: Public
Tell University of Arkansas – Fayetteville to revise its speech policies by filling out this form.

Speech Code Rating

University of Arkansas – Fayetteville 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

  • Residence Hall Handbook: Posting of Information in Housing Facilities

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Materials that discriminate against any member of the university community or visitors on the campus through advertising of offensive behavior or events of a form of biased or prejudiced nature related to one’s personal characteristics, such as race, color, national origin, sex, religion, disability, age or sexual o... Read More

  • Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 214.1: Discrimination (Including Discriminatory Harassment) – Employment, Education, Programs and Services

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    The University reserves the right to address, as an administrative matter, conduct that does not constitute a violation of this policy, but nevertheless is inappropriate in a professional work or educational environment. … Discriminatory Harassment: (1) Unwelcome, protected class-based verbal, written or physi... Read More

  • Student Handbook: Code of Student Life- Student Standards and Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Sexual Harassment: Unwelcome comments or conduct based on gender that creates an intimidating or offensive working, learning, or living environment and that represents substantial interference with the rights or opportunities of the victim. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to: … The use of phone, emai... Read More

  • Student Handbook: Code of Student Life- Student Standards and Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Disorderly conduct including, but not limited to the following … uses abusive or obscene language or makes obscene gestures … Read More

  • Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 708.0: Use of University Facilities and Outdoor Space

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    In general, members of the campus community are expected to utilize the space reservation process to facilitate orderly and coordinated use.  Subject to other provisions of this policy, members of the campus community with a reserved space will have priority over others seeking to use an area during the scheduled ti... Read More

  • Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 418.1: Title IX Policy for Complaints of Sexual Assault and Other Forms of Sexual Harassment

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment is conduct on the basis of sex constituting one of the following: … Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the University’s educational programs or activiti... Read More

  • Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 201.0: Code of Computing Practices

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    No one shall use the University’s computing and network resources to: (a) harass or threaten another person, including but not limited to, by conveying obscene language or images or threats of bodily harm; (b) repeatedly contact another person to harass, whether or not any actual message is communicated, and t... Read More

  • Student Handbook: Code of Student Life- Student Standards and Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Discriminatory Harassment is (1) unwelcome verbal, written, or physical conduct of a biased or prejudicial nature related to an individual’s actual or perceived personal characteristics, that includes, but is not limited to: race, color, national origin, sex; sexual orientation; gender; gender identity or expression... Read More

  • Student Handbook: Code of Student Life- Student Standards and Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: September 9, 2020

    Harassment or threats by means other than the use or threatened use of physical force. Harassment is defined as (1) unwelcome verbal, written, or physical conduct (2) that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment (3) that is sufficiently severe or pervasive that (4) it unreasonably interferes with,... Read More
At present, FIRE has not been publicly involved in any cases at this school.

  • UPDATE: University of Arkansas System adopts revised board policy

    April 6, 2018

    Last week, the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas System unanimously approved a revision to Board Policy 405.1 on “Appointment, Promotion, Tenure, Non-Reappointment, and Dismissal of Faculty.” As FIRE has discussed previously, this version of the policy revision represents an improvement to the one first proposed last fall, yet still has the potential… Read more

  • FIRE renews call to University of Arkansas System to reject proposed board policy

    March 27, 2018

    In a Dec. 5 letter, FIRE wrote to the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas System urging the Board to consider the pernicious threat to academic freedom posed by the proposed revisions to Board Policy 405.1 on “Appointment, Promotion, Tenure, Non-Reappointment, and Dismissal of Faculty.” With a new vote on the proposal slated… Read more

  • FIRE to University of Arkansas System: Do not adopt proposed board policy 405.1

    February 5, 2018

    In a Dec. 5 letter, FIRE wrote to the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas System urging them to consider the pernicious threat to academic freedom posed by the proposed revisions to Board Policy 405.1 on “Appointment, Promotion, Tenure, Non-Reappointment, and Dismissal of Faculty.” Today — two months to the day after our… Read more

  • Proposed University of Arkansas System policy spells trouble for academic freedom

    November 3, 2017

    The University of Arkansas System is considering changes to its tenure policies that some faculty are concerned will threaten academic freedom. Based on our experience and our observation of faculty disciplinary cases, their concerns are well-warranted. Law professor Joshua Silverstein of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has given the proposed revisions a hard… Read more

  • Public universities must resist pressure to discipline students for attending Charlottesville rally

    August 21, 2017

    Last weekend’s protests — and tragedy — in Charlottesville, Virginia, have left many grappling with the question of how to confront speech that offends their deepest-held values and beliefs. FIRE has always argued that the answer is to use one’s own expressive rights to counter ideas one finds offensive or harmful, rather than demanding reflexive… Read more

  • University of Arkansas Student Newspaper Reacts to School’s ‘Red Light’ Ranking

    January 26, 2007

    An editorial in Wednesday’s edition of The Traveler, the University of Arkansas’ (UA’s) student newspaper, reported that some members of the paper’s editorial staff reacted to the school’s “red light” ranking in FIRE’s “Spotlight on Speech Codes 2006: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses,” with little more than an “apathetic shrug.” The… Read more