School Spotlight
University of New Hampshire
Speech Code Rating
University System of New Hampshire: B. Affirmative Action and Equity
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: July 1, 2021Sexual harassment under Title IX means conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more 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 education program or a... Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Declaration of Student Rights and Rules
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: July 1, 2021Individual rights under the United States Constitution shall not be abridged by the University. Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Student Social Media Policy
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: July 1, 2021Guidelines: Students are expected: 1. To be respectful, careful, responsible and accountable for their use of social media. A student’s right to make a statement does not mean that the speech has no consequences in terms of impact on others, judgments made about the speaker by third parties, or the impact on future ... Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Outdoor Assemblies and Events, Solicitation and Dissemination of Viewpoints in Public Areas on Campus
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: July 1, 2021Outdoor assemblies and events may only be held in designated areas on the UNH campus. Designated areas on campus are defined as those areas generally open to the public that do not serve a specific educational, administrative, research, health, residential, dining, athletic, or recreational purpose. … A student orga... Read MoreAffirmative Action Office: Bias Response Protocol
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: July 1, 2021A bias incident is an act of a threat or act of harassment or intimidation, verbal, written or physical which is personally directed against or targets either an individual student/faculty/staff member or a group because of their actual or perceived race, color, veteran status or marital status or other category pro... Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Room and Board Agreement- Civility
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: July 1, 2021[I]n accordance with the SRRR and applicable law, residents or guests shall not harass, intimidate, or threaten a guest or fellow resident through speech, conduct or writing. Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Room and Board Agreement- Common Area Use
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: July 1, 2021Students and guests are prohibited from displaying material in common areas that disrupt or would likely disrupt the educational mission of the University, including, but not limited to, materials that are pornographic, obscene or create a hostile environment sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions ... Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Affirmative Action and Equity Policies- Policy on Harassment and Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: July 1, 2021The University is committed as well to the free and open exchange of ideas, active discourse, and critical debate so necessary to a university. Accordingly, all members of the University of New Hampshire community have the right to hold and vigorously defend and promote their opinions. The exercise of this right may... Read MoreStudent Rights, Rules and Responsibilities: Student Code of Conduct and Conduct Process – Conduct Rules
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: July 1, 2021Use of University computer facilities and/or computing technology to send or post obscene, harassing, or defamatory messages or to intentionally inflict emotional distress on another student, staff member or faculty member. Read More
University of New Hampshire: Student-Created Display on ‘Street Harassment’ Removed
April 7, 2017
FIRE wrote to the University of New Hampshire after the Dean of Students removed a student-created display depicting the text of reported instances of unwelcome sexual remarks.
University of New Hampshire: Eviction of Student for Posting Flier
October 22, 2004
Timothy Garneau, a sophomore at the University of New Hampshire, was evicted from his dorm for posting fliers joking that freshman women could lose the “Freshman 15” by walking up the dormitory stairs. Garneau was charged with offenses including “acts of dishonesty”; violation of “affirmative action” policies; “harassment”; and “conduct which is disorderly, lewd.” FIRE… Read more
REPORT: Artists clash with campus censors
July 10, 2018
Art purged for being “one-sided,” among other excuses Censors, often not understanding the message, ban art rather than grapple with its meaning PHILADELPHIA, July 10, 2018 — Art censorship is nothing new. Spanish conquistadors smashed ceramics of ancient Peruvian cultures that portrayed gay and lesbian sex. The Roman Catholic Church of the 15th century was… Read more
The University of New Hampshire earns FIRE’s top rating for free speech
May 14, 2018
DURHAM, N.H., May 14, 2018 — New Hampshire’s flagship public research university has become the fortieth institution in the country to earn the highest rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The University of New Hampshire revised five speech codes, including a demonstration policy and a posting policy, to earn… Read more
University of New Hampshire’s removal of anti-sexual harassment exhibit undermines free speech
April 4, 2017
FIRE and others are asking questions about the University of New Hampshire’s decision to remove a student-led exhibit criticizing street harassment and allow it to be re-posted only after making changes apparently acceptable to administrators’ tastes about what language is sufficiently inoffensive to be shared on a university campus. Student Jordyn Haime came up with… Read more
FIRE Testifies in Support of Free Expression Bill at New Hampshire State Legislature
February 4, 2016
On Tuesday, January 26, I had the privilege of testifying before the New Hampshire House Education Committee on HB 1561, a bill to protect freedom of expression at New Hampshire’s public colleges and universities by prohibiting the use of unconstitutional “free speech zones.” This bill is important for New Hampshire because at least two of… Read more
In Attempt to Distance UNH from Bias-Free Language Guide, UNH President Ignores Ludicrous ‘Red Light’ Policy
July 31, 2015
This week, a “Bias-Free Language Guide” posted on the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH’s) website made its way around the Internet and was ruthlessly mocked by the masses before UNH decided to remove it. Although the document explicitly was not intended to be a list of words punishable by the university, online commenters suggested that… Read more
Four Key Points About Free Speech and the Feds’ ‘Blueprint’
July 15, 2013
It’s been more than two months since FIRE and the higher ed community were shocked by a letter issued jointly by the Departments of Education and Justice to the University of Montana. FIRE staff have blogged extensively about the Departments’ “blueprint” for campus sexual harassment in the last 10 weeks, but there are four crucial points that I… Read more
How campus censorship makes us all a little bit dumber
October 15, 2012
If you feel that the quality of our national dialogue is at an all—time low, you’re not alone. But why, in a day and age when more of us are college educated than ever before, are we losing the ability to engage in informed, meaningful debate? Shouldn’t we be living in some kind of golden age… Read more
FIRE Featured in Two Articles in the ‘Boston Herald’
February 2, 2009
In yesterday’s edition of the Boston Herald, FIRE was fortunate enough to be the subject of two separate articles. The first featured FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate and his quest to land a spot on Harvard University’s Board of Overseers—something we have been championing since his bid was announced back in December. As quoted in the… Read more
Speech Codes Don’t Get Enforced?
October 15, 2007
As Will discussed earlier, Florida International University professor Stanley Fish argues in his latest “Think Again” column for The New York Times that campus speech codes do not present as much of a problem for students as one might think. In the process of reviewing filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney’s Indoctrinate U, Fish argues that any… Read more
This Week in FIRE History: Madness at the University of New Hampshire
November 2, 2006
It has been two years since FIRE intervened at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) where sophomore Tim Garneau had been evicted from his dormitory and was living out of his car after being charged with harassment and “conduct which is disorderly, lewd.” What could he have possibly done that was so horrible that university… Read more
The Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Silly
October 18, 2006
As a free speech organization, we see pretty much every type of censorship out there. People are frequently censored at colleges and universities for engaging in controversial political speech. Other times, people are censored for engaging in speech that is crude and repugnant, but that is wholly protected. And then there are times that people… Read more
‘Sexual Harassment Policies Need Reform’
February 15, 2006
Do not miss Wendy McElroy’s piece on the abuse of “sexual harassment” from grade school through college. As we wrote on the home page: McElroy aptly rebukes the AAUW for “the harm wrought to children by biased reports that lump ‘comments, jokes, teasing, gestures, or looks’ in with real violence.” FIRE salutes Wendy McElroy for… Read more
Art and the Myth of the ‘Right Not to Be Offended’
October 21, 2005
Check out the fascinating story (“Censoring Art or Protecting Workers?”) about censored artwork in Inside Higher Ed. Apparently the University of Michigan at Flint is demanding that a graphic drawing called Hermaphrodite be removed from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Center because it is creating a “hostile environment” for workers. Anyone who pays attention… Read more
File Under ‘See No Evil’
August 3, 2005
Terry Caesar penned a column Monday on Inside Higher Ed lamenting the chilling effect speech codes have on professorial humor. Citing one of FIRE’s favorite examples, the former speech code at the University of Connecticut, he wrote: To relate an official response to some example of a joke, or even an unintended joke, on American… Read more
Spokane Newspaper Denounces WSU Censorship
July 19, 2005
Mere hours after FIRE went public in defense of Washington State University student Chris Lee’s free speech rights, the newspaper most devoted to covering Washington State University wholeheartedly endorsed FIRE’s position in a powerful editorial. The editorial is even sweeter given that the paper in question, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, was responsible for running a fairly… Read more
University of New Hampshire Gets an Honor (One It Didn’t Want)
July 1, 2005
A notorious FIRE case received a “Dishonorable Mention” in the Boston Phoenix’s “Eighth Annual Muzzle Awards”: The University of New Hampshire taught Timothy Garneau a lesson on the perils of political correctness last November. After Garneau wrote and distributed a flier joking that freshman women could lose 10 to 15 pounds by taking the stairs… Read more
Phony Papers vs. Joking Posters
April 15, 2005
While this is certainly not a FIRE case, it is, undeniably, a pretty funny story from today’s Chronicle of Higher Education (registration required): Fill a paper with gobbledygook, add some fake charts, slap on a title dense with highfalutin scientific jargon, and—voilà!—a highfalutin conference may actually accept it. That’s what happened when three students at the… Read more
Sommers Speaks About Summers
March 23, 2005
FIRE Board of Advisors member Christina Hoff Sommers has written an interesting article on the Larry Summers controversy at Harvard. While the bulk of the piece addresses the way in which the media have covered the underlying gender difference debate, the last paragraph resonated with FIRE’s experience and work: Of course, offending feminist professors was… Read more
‘Lyle’ Portends Life Without Freedom, ‘Friends,’ ‘Seinfeld’
March 10, 2005
Every year when I attend a national conference of administrators for America’s colleges and universities, one message comes through loud and clear: claims of harassment, sexual or otherwise, are out of control. At this conference, experts review harassment case law, recent suits and settlements from across the country. They also tell horror stories of absurd… Read more
Tolerance Is Not a One-Way Street
March 4, 2005
After reading David’s recent posts on the “controversy” over Jada Pinkett Smith’s “heteronormative” speech, I simply must put in my two cents. Before you continue reading this post, I urge you first to read what she actually said. One of her comments (“Don’t let anybody define who you are…. Don’t let them put you in… Read more
Occidental College’s Ongoing Shame: Part 1
March 1, 2005
One year ago this month, Occidental College radio show host Jason Antebi hosted his popular radio show Rant and Rave for the very last time. In this last show he mocked two student representatives who had previously tried to have him impeached from his student government position. The student representatives filed sexual harassment charges against… Read more
Not to Mention…
February 4, 2005
And let’s not forget about our recent case at the University of New Hampshire, where a student was expelled from the dorm; sentenced to psychological counseling; found guilty of harassment, disorderly conduct, and violating the affirmative action policy; and forced to live out of his car for weeks simply for joking that freshman girls could… Read more
University of New Hampshire Evicts Student for Posting Flier
October 28, 2004
DURHAM, N.H., October 28, 2004—The University of New Hampshire has evicted a student from housing for posting fliers in his residential hall joking that freshman women could lose the “Freshman 15” by walking up the dormitory stairs. The public university found him guilty of violating policies on affirmative action, harassment, and disorderly conduct, and has… Read more
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