University of Minnesota
Location: None Listed,
Website: https://twin-cities.umn.edu/
Type: No Type Yet
Federal Circuit: 1st Circuit
Speech Code Rating
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When One Student Acts Out, All Could Be Punished
February 9, 2018
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf at Inside Higher Ed A move by the University of Minnesota to possibly hold an entire student group accountable if a single member breaks institutional rules has confused the campus, with students and professors concerned that the new policy could stifle free expression. Read more here.
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U Football Players’ Sexual Conduct Tests Burdens of Proof
January 5, 2017
By Peter Cox at MPR. The very public sexual assault investigations into some members of the University of Minnesota football team last month showed the clear differences between campus and criminal investigations… Read more here.
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Minnesota Football Rape Case Emblematic of Campus Witch-hunt Culture
January 3, 2017
By Jillian Kay Melchior at the New York Post. After a college football coach dared to stand up for 10 black players’ legal rights, a mob of at least 3,000 has petitioned for the University of Minnesota’s president and athletic director to fire him… Read more here.
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How the Minnesota Football Boycott Shows Title IX Excesses
December 20, 2016
By Erin Mundahl at InsideSources The University of Minnesota football team was poised to set a record on December 27, becoming the first team in more than fifty years to boycott a college football bowl game out of protest. Last week, the team went on strike out of concern that the university had mishandled sexual assault accusations against several team members. On Saturday, the team decided to break its boycott after the release of an 80-page report detailing the sexual assault allegations that led to the suspension of 10 players. The game may be back on, but the concerning questions about […]
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University of Minnesota and Football Players Met Over Boycott
December 16, 2016
By Marc Tracy and Pat Borzi at The New York Times The University of Minnesota’s president met with the football team late Friday, a day after the players had pledged to boycott a bowl game unless the university lifted the suspensions of 10 teammates related to a sexual assault investigation… Read more here.
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Minnesota Football Boycott Enters Second Day, Highlighting Complex Campus Issue
December 16, 2016
By Rick Maese at The Washington Post The University of Minnesota football team skipped practice for the second straight day Friday, a highly unusual case of college athletes unified in protest. The evening before, players huddled together on the field, most of them wearing their maroon jerseys and sweatpants. Drew Wolitarsky, a senior wide receiver, read from a sheet of paper… Read more here.
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University of Minnesota’s Proposed Free Speech Protections Would be “the Most Comprehensive to Date”
May 10, 2016
By Dale Carpenter at The Washington Post Last week the University of Minnesota Senate began to take up the issue of free speech on campus. No action was taken, but several students showed up to speak against a proposed “core principles” statement provisionally approved by the university’s top faculty committee. The statement condemns efforts to shout down controversial speakers and declares free speech paramount to other values like maintaining a positive campus “climate.” During the meeting, one faculty member also called for “discursive affirmative action” to correct perceived imbalances of power and influence among speakers, a concept explicitly rejected by the […]
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Free Speech Above All
May 10, 2016
By Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed The University of Minnesota at Twin Cities is considering a set of statements on free speech that, if passed, could be the strongest such affirmation seen on any campus. Yet the statements’ future is uncertain, given concerns — especially those from students — about free speech being “paramount” to other values. At the same time, it’s unclear whether free expression can truly be protected without declaring it paramount… Read more here.
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Campus Sexual Assault Policies, at U and Elsewhere, Drawing Scrutiny
October 20, 2015
By Emma Nelson at Star Tribune Weeks into her freshman year at the University of Minnesota, Courtney Blake was sexually assaulted in her dorm room. She reported it to campus officials, rather than police. Though the young man argued the sex was consensual, he was found to have violated the student conduct code and put on disciplinary probation, given mandatory counseling and assigned to write a paper, according to an investigation document. Blake was moved to another dorm. Less than a year later, Blake was assaulted at an off-campus party by a different student. This time, she turned to the […]
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Sex At The U: From ‘No Means No’ To ‘Yes, And Only Yes, Means Yes’
July 12, 2015
By Editorial at Star Tribune The numbers tell the awful story: Estimates say that 1 in 5 women on college campuses are victims of some kind of sexual assault. And while we lament that such attacks happen so often, we applaud efforts to prevent them. The University of Minnesota developed a sex assault prevention policy and was poised to launch it this month. The proposal could subject students to disciplinary action for having sex unless both parties give what’s known as “affirmative consent.’’ But on Wednesday, after concerns were raised by members of the Board of Regents, U President Eric […]
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U. of Minnesota Takes Up ‘Affirmative Consent’ Rule
July 6, 2015
By Kemberlee Kaye at College Insurrection The progressive war on sex rages on… The Star Tribune reports: University of Minnesota to adopt ‘affirmative consent’ rule for sex partners The University of Minnesota is joining a national movement requiring students to obtain “affirmative consent” from their sex partners or risk being disciplined for sexual assault. The policy change, sometimes known as the “yes means yes” rule, has been sweeping college campuses across the country since California passed the first such law last year. The U’s new rule, which is poised to take effect this month after a 30-day comment period, says […]
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University Of Minnesota Becomes Latest Campus To Adopt ‘Affirmative Consent’ Standards
July 6, 2015
By Ashley Dobson at Red Alert Politics The University of Minnesota has become the latest school to join the bandwagon “yes means yes” sexual assault policy movement. This new rule requires students to obtain “affirmative consent” from their sexual partners during all types of sexual activities or risk being disciplined for sexual assault, the Star-Tribune reported. This type of rule has become trendy and has been making its way to college campuses across the country since California passed a statewide law like it last September. Under the University of Minnesota’s new rule, this consent must be given through “clear and unambiguous words or actions.” […]
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University Of Minnesota Thinks ‘Yes Means Yes’ Standard For Sex Won’t Put Accused Students At Risk
July 6, 2015
By Greg Piper at The College Fix The Minneapolis Star Tribune may have the best rundown of the minefield that is affirmative consent that we’ve ever seen. In its story today about the University of Minnesota’s adoption of the affirmative-consent standard for sex between students, better known as “yes means yes,” the paper says the rule “says that sex is OK only if both parties express consent through ‘clear and unambiguous words or actions.’” Beyond quoting critics such as Robert Shibley at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education – who says the guilty-until-proven-innocent rule leaves accused students with “effectively no defense” – the article […]
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Leadership roundup: How college leaders are answering questions about free speech
April 25, 2017
Controversy around free speech on college campuses seems to only be escalating: Charles Murray’s disastrous visit to Middlebury College, the violent response to Milo Yiannopoulos’ visit to the University of California, Berkeley, the shutting down of Heather Mac Donald’s Claremont McKenna College event, and just last week, Berkeley’s attempt to shut down Ann Coulter’s visit to the birthplace of the free speech movement, which has already prompted a lawsuit. After a free speech controversy engulfs a college community, campus leaders are often left with questions from students, faculty, alumni, and the press about where the school stands on the issues. […]
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At the University of Minnesota, reports of ‘bias’ often include political speech
April 10, 2017
Last week, a Minneapolis Star Tribune report on the University of Minnesota’s “Bias Response and Referral Network” highlighted the debate over whether — or to what extent — bias reporting systems may chill free speech on college campuses. The Star Tribune’s report follows FIRE’s own report on bias reporting systems and, just as we did at dozens of universities across the country, utilizes public records laws to get a closer look at what gets reported and how the university responds. The log of bias incidents provided to the Star Tribune in response to a public records request, embedded below, reveals that […]
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University of Minnesota Football Team to Boycott Bowl Game Over Perceived Lack of Due Process for Teammates [UPDATED]
December 16, 2016
Update (December 17, 2016): FIRE’s Joe Cohn spoke to The Washington Post and The New York Times about the issues raised by the team’s boycott. Yesterday evening, the University of Minnesota football team announced its intention to boycott a bowl game after 10 members of the team were suspended indefinitely earlier this week following the university’s investigation of sexual misconduct allegations. Scheduled to play in the Holiday Bowl on December 27, the team’s remaining players are criticizing what they perceive as a lack of due process and demanding both that their teammates be reinstated and that university president Eric Kaler and athletics […]
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More Campus Leaders Address Free Speech; Some Do It Better Than Others
October 27, 2016
We’ve been keeping our eye on the recent uptick in campus leaders addressing free speech. In our latest roundup of public commitments to freedom of speech by college and university administrators, we’re focusing only on “The Good”—bringing you a few of our recent favorites. We’ve even included one statement that almost made our “Bad” list. Read on to find out why: The Good George Mason University (GMU) In an email to GMU students on Monday, Vice President for University Life Rose Pascarell took a pro-speech speech stance on the topic of civility in the wake of several recent campus events […]
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What Campus Leaders Had To Say About Free Speech This Week [UPDATED]
October 7, 2016
Campus leaders have recently been taking advantage of opportunities—sometimes under pressure—to explain their approach to freedom of speech and other principles enshrined in the First Amendment. How did they fare with such tests this week? The Good Washington State University (WSU) Members of WSU’s administration—President Kirk Schulz, Provost and Executive Vice President Dan Bernardo, and Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Melynda Huskey—penned a “message on Free Speech” that went out to WSU students this week. In it, they reminded students of the university’s role in the free exchange of ideas: Public universities are uniquely suited […]
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University of Minnesota Moves Closer to Adopting Powerful Free Speech Statement
May 3, 2016
The University of Minnesota Faculty Consultative Committee (FCC) has drafted a statement of four core principles regarding the role of free expression on campus, which is now working through the university approval process. Professor Dale Carpenter, one of the statement’s sponsors, reported at The Volokh Conspiracy today that it was unanimously approved by the “top committee representing the faculty.” As my colleague Alex Morey explained last month, the statement rests on the following ideas: (1) A public university must be absolutely committed to protecting free speech, both for constitutional and academic reasons. […] (2) Free speech includes protection for speech […]
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Minnesota Faculty Committee Votes to Move Free Speech Statement Forward
March 10, 2016
A faculty committee at the University of Minnesota voted to provisionally approve a free speech resolution in a 7–2 vote today—a significant first step in getting the resolution formally adopted by UMN. The resolution states: Ideas are the lifeblood of a free society and universities are its beating heart. If freedom of speech is undermined on a university campus, it is not safe anywhere. The University of Minnesota resolves that the freedom of speech is, and will always be, safe at this institution. To ensure that speech is protected, UMN would adhere to “four core principles”: (1) A public university […]
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Minnesota Faculty Senate Committee to Consider Free Speech Resolution
March 9, 2016
After several recent controversies over the limits of free speech at the University of Minnesota (UMN), including speaker shout-downs and protests over “hate speech,” faculty at the university will soon have the opportunity to commit to protecting free expression on campus. Tomorrow, UMN Law School Professor Dale Carpenter will formally introduce a free speech resolution at a meeting of the faculty senate’s executive committee, the Faculty Consultative Committee, which sets the agenda for the full faculty senate. A nod by the committee to push the resolution forward could mean eventual university-wide adoption of the resolution. UMN’s student newspaper the Minnesota […]
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Heckler’s Veto Hits Minnesota Law School
November 5, 2015
In the latest stateside skirmish in the unending Israeli-Palestinian conflict, students at the University of Minnesota (UMN) decided to engage in some vigilante censorship on Tuesday when they disrupted a speech by Israeli academic and New York University professor Moshe Halbertal, who is also a professor of Jewish thought and philosophy at Hebrew University. Professor Dale Carpenter, who attended the speech, shared his view of the events for The Volokh Conspiracy: The lecture, which I attended, was delayed half an hour as one by one the protesters stood up to shout denunciations of Israel and were escorted from the hall […]
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University of Minnesota Student Leads Charge for Chicago Principles
September 18, 2015
Momentum is building nationwide behind a push for adoption of the University of Chicago’s statement in support of freedom of expression on campus, endorsed by FIRE this past January. On Wednesday, USA TODAY’s editorial board penned a stirring call for the statement’s widespread adoption, echoing a New York Daily News editorial from late August. Now students are joining the chorus as well. Last week, University of Minnesota student Jasper Johnson took to the pages of the Minnesota Daily to argue for the adoption of the Chicago principles. Making the case that protecting even offensive speech would ultimately benefit his fellow […]
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FIRE’s ‘Star Tribune’ Op-Ed: Affirmative Consent Policy ‘Obviously Flawed’
August 14, 2015
Minnesota’s Star Tribune published an op-ed by FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley yesterday evening, explaining the consequences of University of Minnesota’s “obviously flawed” affirmative consent policy: In an attempt to address the problem, the University of Minnesota recently proposed an “affirmative consent” (sometimes called “yes means yes”) policy for sexual activity among students. Colleges and legislatures in other states have rushed such policies into effect. But the University of Minnesota is taking a more deliberate look at what those policies actually mean when applied to students’ sex lives — and Minnesotans may not like what they see. Robert said the […]
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FIRE Weighs in on Minnesota’s ‘Affirmative Consent’ Policy, Commends Delay
July 13, 2015
Implementation of the University of Minnesota’s (UMN’s) controversial “affirmative consent” policy for sexual assault prevention remains delayed after FIRE and other civil rights groups decried it as a due process disaster. On the heels of laws mandating similar policies in New York and California, UMN’s policy would require that students have “a clear, unambiguous, informed, and voluntary agreement between participants” before engaging in sexual activity. The StarTribune reports that hundreds have protested the delay, saying the policy would stem the rising tide of sexual assaults on campuses. But university president Eric Kaler says UMN needs more time to wade through […]
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