School Spotlight
University of California, Irvine
Location:
Irvine, California
Type:
Public
Speech Code Rating
University of California, Irvine 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.
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Sec. 714-18: Computer and Network Use Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Examples of misuse include, but are not limited to: … Using computers, electronic mail or any other form of computer network based communication to act abusively toward others or to provoke a violent reaction, such as stalking, acts of bigotry, threats of violence, or other hostile or intimidating “fight... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Grounds for Discipline
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Harassment, defined as conduct that is so severe and/or pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so substantially impairs a person’s access to University programs or activities that the person is effectively denied equal access to the University’s resources and opportunities. Read MoreHousing Policies: Threatening Behavior
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Participation in activities or behavior that threaten or impact the health and safety of individuals or the community is prohibited. This policy includes, but is not limited to, physical, electronic, written and verbal interactions that are either direct or indirect which are prohibited within housing communities an... Read MoreStudent Housing: Principles of Community
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies Restricting Freedom of Conscience
Last updated: September 28, 2021Everyone who chooses to live in, work in, or visit our residential communities must understand that we will not tolerate any form of bigotry, harassment, intimidation, threat, or abuse, whether verbal or written, physical or psychological, direct or implied. Alcohol or substance abuse, ignorance, or humorous intent ... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Principles of Community
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 28, 2021Our legacy for an increasingly multicultural academic community and for a learning climate free from expressions of bigotry is drawn from the United States and California Constitutions and from the charter of the University of California, which protects diversity and reaffirms our commitment to the protection of la... Read MoreSec. 700-18: Guidelines on Discrimination and Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Harassment (hostile environment) is unwelcome conduct, including verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct, directed at an individual or group of people based upon race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender transition status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability,... Read MoreUniversity of California Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Sexual Harassment is when: … unwelcome sexual or other sex-based conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it unreasonably denies, adversely limits, or interferes with a person’s participation in or benefit from the education, employment or other programs or activities of the University, and creat... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Policy on Speech and Advocacy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021The University has a special obligation to protect free inquiry and free expression. On University grounds open to the public generally, all persons may exercise the constitutionally protected rights of free expression, speech, and assembly. Such activities must not, however, interfere with the right of the Universi... Read MoreUniversity of California: Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment- DOE-Covered Conduct
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 28, 2021Conduct is DOE-Covered Conduct if all of the below are true: … The alleged conduct is DOE Sex-Based Misconduct, meaning it is any of the following: … unwelcome sexual or other sex-based conduct (as defined in Section II of the Policy) that a reasonable person would determine is so severe, pervasive, and objectively ... Read More
Policies are rated on their inclusion of 10 due process safeguards. Each policy may receive 2 points for fully including that safeguard, 1 point for partial inclusion, and 0 points for no meaningful inclusion. Most, but not all, institutions have separate policies for sexual misconduct and all other misconduct. See FIRE’s Spotlight on Due Process report for more information.
Grades
University of California at Irvine: Suppression of Affirmative Action Bake Sale
January 15, 2003
The University of California at Irvine (UCI) has decided not to interfere with the College Republicans’ affirmative action bake sale. The bake sale protest was halted when administrators ordered them to remove the satirical price list for their doughnuts, saying it violated the university’s nondiscrimination policy. When student organizer Bryan Zuetel offered to change the… Read more
College Republicans event featuring Israeli reservists disrupted at UC Irvine
May 8, 2018
Last Thursday, protesters at the University of California, Irvine disrupted a panel discussion featuring members of the Israeli organization Reservists on Duty that was hosted by the university’s College Republicans chapter. The event, which featured members of the Israel Defense Forces, was running as planned through the first 40 minutes before a group of protesters… Read more
Chemerinsky and Gillman create free speech checklist for college administrators
September 15, 2017
Last week, Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman—the dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and the chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, respectively—issued a short free speech checklist for college administrators. Although the list is intended to help college administrators navigate the contours of the First Amendment, it also serves as… Read more
UC Irvine Report Suggests Unconstitutional Implementation of ‘Principles Against Intolerance’
November 29, 2016
Last March, FIRE reported on the University of California (UC) Board of Regents’ “Principles Against Intolerance,” aimed at addressing anti-Semitism and other biases on campus. The Principles were revised multiple times in response to public criticism, but as we noted when the UC Regents adopted the Principles, even the amended version fails to make clear… Read more
Listen In: Greg to Debate Microaggressions at UC Irvine Tomorrow Evening
October 5, 2015
FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff will join a panel discussion tomorrow at the University of California, Irvine, at 7pm PDT (10pm EDT), titled The future of speech and ‘microaggressions’ on college campuses. The panel, hosted by Southern California Public Radio’s AirTalk, features a diverse set of speakers, including college professors and a comedian, debating… Read more
University of California Schools Flout Student Speech Rights
November 29, 2011
While some University of California schools are facing scrutiny due to their handling of students’ exercises of free speech and civil disobedience, others in the system have unfinished business protecting students’ free speech rights in their policies. All eight of the UC universities reviewed by FIRE have “red light” or “yellow light” ratings for restricting campus… Read more
Dershowitz on Free Speech at UC Irvine
February 25, 2011
At The Huffington Post, Alan Dershowitz, renowned civil liberties litigator and member of the Board of Editors for FIRE’s guides to student rights, serves up his take on the right to speak and the right to hear at UC Irvine, in connection with a controversial event covered previously on The Torch.
Criminal Charges for Student Protesters Who Disrupted UC Irvine Event
February 7, 2011
Nearly one year ago today, a few dozen people substantially disrupted a speech by Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, who was speaking at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in the UCI Student Center for a public lecture on "U.S. Israel Relations from a Political and Personal Perspective." The lecture was sponsored… Read more
Punishment of Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine Debated in ‘Los Angeles Times’
June 21, 2010
The disciplinary recommendation of a year-long suspension for the Muslim Student Union (MSU) at the University of California, Irvine, is the subject of debate today in the Los Angeles Times. As reported here on The Torch last week, the university suspended the entire group—as opposed to simply pursuing charges against the individual students who participated… Read more
UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union Suspended for Disruption of Oren Lecture
June 14, 2010
A few months ago, Adam wrote about an incident at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), during which Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, was repeatedly disrupted by protesters, including members of UCI’s Muslim Student Union. UCI took a firm stand against the protesters’ tactics, and several students faced disciplinary charges following the… Read more
Disruptive Protesters Face Disciplinary Consequences at UC Irvine
February 10, 2010
On Monday, a few dozen people disrupted a speech by Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, who was speaking at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), in the UCI Student Center for a public lecture on "U.S. Israel Relations from a Political and Personal Perspective." The lecture was sponsored by 10 campus bodies including the Department of… Read more
‘Free Speech and Double Standards’
October 3, 2007
Be sure to check out Stuart Taylor’s hard-hitting piece in the National Journal on “Free Speech and Double Standards” in academia. With regards to Columbia’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Taylor points out: It would be easier to stomach the free-speech grandstanding of Lee Bollinger, Columbia’s president and Ahmadinejad’s histrionically hostile host, and others of Bollinger’s ilk if… Read more
FIRE on the Radio Today on Academic Freedom Cases in California
September 21, 2007
Today at 12:15 p.m. ET (9:15 a.m. PT), FIRE President Greg Lukianoff will participate in a broadcast panel discussion on academic freedom in the wake of the canceled speech by former Harvard President Larry Summers to the UC Board of Regents and the controversy surrounding Erwin Chemerinsky’s new position as dean of the UC–Irvine law… Read more
David Bernstein on Summers, Chemerinsky, and Academic Freedom
September 20, 2007
Professor David Bernstein of George Mason University School of Law (and a Volokh Conspiracy blogger) has a great article in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times about the contrast between the University of California’s handling of Erwin Chemerinsky (shameful but ultimately corrected) and Larry Summers (shameful and uncorrected). Adam covered the Summers controversy in some depth in… Read more
Larry Summers and ‘Academia at Its Worst’
September 19, 2007
It was disappointing to learn that the University of California (UC) withdrew its speaking invitation to former Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers after the invitations had gone out. The main pressure appears to have originated with a petition organized by faculty at UC Davis who argued that Summers “has come to symbolize gender and racial… Read more
Reversal: Chemerinsky Coming Back to UC Irvine
September 17, 2007
Capping off a bizarre few days, the Los Angeles Times is reporting this afternoon that legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky will in fact serve as the dean of the University of California–Irvine’s new law school when it opens in 2009. Chemerinsky had discussed the situation in a Los Angeles Times op-ed just this past Friday, criticizing… Read more
Erwin Chemerinsky and the Danger of the Partisan Dance
September 14, 2007
It’s difficult to get through three years of law school and not hear the name of noted constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky; if you take the bar exam you’ve likely spent a lot of time listening to him teach (Chemerinsky lectures on constitutional law are a mainstay of what is likely the most popular bar… Read more
The Danger of “Hate Speech”
May 31, 2007
Often, while reviewing a school’s policies or the text of an administrator’s speech, I encounter promises of free speech tempered by the idea of hate speech: “While free speech is an integral part of this institution, hate speech is unacceptable and will be punished.” However, most of what universities call “hate speech” is free speech,… Read more
Respecting Free Speech at UC Irvine
June 8, 2005
UC Irvine’s Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel N. Gomez wrote an opinion piece about freedom of speech that was posted today in the campus newspaper. His article is an excellent example of an administrator who understands the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the Supreme Court precedents for what constitutes protected speech, and his… Read more
Practical Advice for Fraternities Caught in the Battle for Free Speech on Campus
September 16, 2004
I. Introduction While there is no shortage of free speech battles on college campuses, fraternities have the dubious honor of being at the center of many of the least sympathetic controversies. From Halloween parties where brothers show up dressed as Ku Klux Klan members to fraternity newsletters that graphically relate a brother’s sexual exploits with… Read more
Discrimination by doughnut at UCI
September 27, 2003
IRVINE – As the recall election dominates headlines and newscasts, the racial-data measure on the Oct. 7 ballot, Proposition 54, has seen little public debate. That is, except at the University of California, Irvine. On Thursday, students argued and nearly came to blows over a controversial bake sale – stopped only when a UCI… Read more