University of Maine at Fort Kent

University Policies: Solicitation Policy

Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: August 6, 2018

Posters must be free of profanity, pornography, hate speech, speech that insights [sic] hate or violence or other threatening speech. All advertisements must adhere to the UMFK policies related to the advertisement of alcohol-related events.

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Student Handbook: Posters/Advertising

Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: August 6, 2018

Signs, notices and poster content should be cleared with the Student Affairs Office before being placed on display. Posters must be posted on appropriate bulletin boards around campus. Posters attached to walls, windows or doors will be removed by maintenance staff. Individuals or organizations sponsoring a particular poster or notice are responsible for removing the poster after the event has occurred. Posters with inappropriate content or content that does not follow UMFK policies will be removed by Student Affairs personnel (see Alcohol Policies). Certain activities may not be advertised on campus.

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Brochure: Sexual Harassment at the University of Maine System

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 6, 2018

Sexual harassment may be blatant … [o]r sexual harassment may be more subtle – like staring, sexual jokes, or teasing, sexually demeaning remarks.

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University Policies: Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, Relationship Violence, Stalking and Retaliation

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 6, 2018

Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, including sexual assault and sexual violence. Sexual harassment, including sexual assault, can involve persons of the same or opposite sex. Consistent with the law, this policy prohibits two types of sexual harassment:

…

Hostile Environment: Sexual harassment that creates a hostile environment is based on sex and exists when the harassment:

1. Is severe, pervasive, or persistent, and objectively offensive such that it denies or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the University’s programs, services, opportunities, or activities; or
2. Unreasonably interferes with an individual’s academic or work performance.

A hostile environment can be created by anyone involved in a University program or activity, such as an administrator, faculty or staff member, student, or campus guest. Offensiveness alone is not enough to create a hostile environment. Although repeated incidents increase the likelihood that a hostile environment has been created, a single serious incident, such as a sexual assault, can be sufficient.

Determining whether conduct creates a hostile environment depends not only on whether the conduct was unwelcome to the person who feels harassed, but also whether a reasonable person in a similar situation would have perceived the conduct as objectively offensive. The following factors will also be considered:

1. The degree to which the conduct affected one or more students’ education or individual’s employment;
2. The nature, scope, frequency, duration, and location of the incident(s);
3. The identity, number, and relationships of persons involved;
4. The nature of higher education.

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Board of Trustees Policy Manual: Section 212 Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and Civility

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: August 6, 2018

The Board of Trustees is committed to protecting the rights all University community members share to free speech, which includes free expression and assembly, as enshrined in the U.S. and Maine State Constitutions. There shall be no restriction at any System institutions on these fundamental rights, although the University may prohibit speech that violates the law, defames specific individuals, genuinely threatens or harasses others, or violates privacy or confidentiality requirements or interests. The University may also reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of the exercise of these rights to preserve order for the System’s universities to function as institutions of higher learning.

Free speech requires tolerance for diversity of opinion and respect for an individual’s right to express his or her beliefs, however unpopular they may be, without social or legal prohibition or fear of sanction. Tolerating and respecting another’s views, however, does not mean those views are immune from critical scrutiny. Indeed, it is the university’s responsibility to foster an environment where all are free to critically evaluate the ideas presented to them, and to accept critical evaluation of their own ideas.

Finally, although the University System greatly values civility and expects community members to share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, demands for civility and mutual respect will not be used to justify restricting the discussion or expression of ideas or speech that may be disagreeable or even offensive to some members of the University community. Free speech is not absolute, and one person’s claim to exercise his or her right to free speech may not be used to deny another person’s right to free speech.

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University of Maine System Student Conduct Code

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 6, 2018

Harassment: Repeated and/or severe acts of unwelcome behavior that creates a hostile working, educational, or living environment that unreasonably interferes with an individual’s academic or job performance and opportunities.

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Proposed University of Maine System policy unduly restricts faculty political activity

January 17, 2018

The University of Maine System Board of Trustees will consider a policy revision at a meeting later this month that would restrict how university employees engage in political activity. The policy, called “Institutional Authority on Political Matters,” unnecessarily restricts faculty political expression and needs some revisions before being adopted. For example, the policy would prevent faculty from using “UMS or university . . . computers, copiers, email, UMS- or university-issued cell phones and other communications equipment . . .” when engaging in political activity. While it may be legitimate to prohibit employees from using university resources like copy paper and […]