University of North Carolina System: State of the First Amendment

January 10, 2006

FIRE teamed up with the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy to release the Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System. The Report notes that UNC System’s many speech codes and illiberal restrictions on religious groups would likely not survive a legal challenge. It also reveals that “13 out of the 16 schools in the UNC System have at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

POL 08.00.05 – Acceptable Use Policy

Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: January 26, 2018

Conduct which violates this policy includes, but is not limited to: … The use of the UNCP information technology infrastructure to harass or intimidate others or to create a hostile work or educational environment. … Engaging in any other activity that does not comply with the general principles presented above.

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POL 04.25.05 – Student Sexual Misconduct Policy

Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: January 26, 2018

3.2 Bullying: repeated and/or severe aggressive behavior likely to intimidate or intentionally hurt, control, or diminish another person, physically or mentally, that is not speech or conduct otherwise protected by the First Amendment.

3.2.1 The act of bullying often includes comments about race, color, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or disability and often involves an imbalance of power, aggression, and a negative, repeated behavior.  For purposes of this policy, incidents of bullying, which fall under sexual misconduct violations, are based on gender (e.g., sex, sexual orientation, genetic identity, gender expression, and genetic information).

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REG 11.30.01 – Student Code of Conduct Regulation

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: January 26, 2018

1.1 Any student whose conduct on or off campus becomes unsatisfactory and is determined to have a detrimental impact on the mission of the university will be subject to appropriate action through the Office of Student Conduct.

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12.1 Obstructing or disrupting teaching, research, or other university activities on university premises. Obstruction and/or disruption may occur through verbal abuse, obscenities, or alarm; making unreasonable noise; creating a hazardous or lewd condition by any act, which serves no legitimate purpose as defined by the university.

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POL 04.25.05 – Student Sexual Misconduct Policy

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: January 26, 2018

3.9 Harassment ~ Sexual: unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, online, graphic, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostile conduct based on a person’s Protected Status, when such conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it interferes with or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the university’s education or work programs or activities. Incidents of harassment related to sexual misconduct are based on gender (e.g., sex, sexual orientation, genetic identity, genetic expression, and genetic information).

3.9.1 Sexual Harassment may be subject to discipline when it takes the form of: 1) hostile environment; 2) quid pro quo harassment; and/or 3) retaliatory harassment.

3.10 Harassment ~ Hostile Environment: unwelcome conduct based on Protected Status that is so severe, persistent, or pervasive and objectively offensive that it unreasonably interferes with, denies, or limits someone’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s educational, social, and/or residential programs, thereby creating an environment that a reasonable person in similar circumstances and with similar identities would find hostile, intimidating, or abusive.  An isolated incident, unless sufficiently severe, does not amount to Hostile Environment Harassment.

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Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: January 26, 2018

No student may be denied the protection of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and Article I of the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, which refer to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to assemble peacefully.

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REG 11.30.01: Student Code of Conduct Regulation

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: January 26, 2018

14. HARASSMENT, BULLYING, OR INTIMIDATION

14.1 No student shall threaten, coerce, harass or intimidate another person or identifiable group of persons, in a manner that is unlawful or in violation of a constitutionally valid university policy, while on university premises or at university sponsored activities based in whole or in part upon the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status.

14.2 No student shall engage in unlawful harassment leading to a hostile environment. Unlawful harassment includes conduct that creates a hostile environment by meeting the following criteria: It is: (1) Directed toward a particular person or persons; (2) Based in whole or in part upon the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status; (3) Unwelcome; (4) Severe or pervasive; (5) Objectively offensive; and (6) So unreasonably interferes with the target person’s employment, academic pursuits, or participation in university-sponsored activities as to effectively deny equal access to the university’s resources and opportunities.

14.2.1 In determining whether student conduct violates these provisions, all relevant facts and circumstances shall be considered. Care must be exercised in order to preserve freedoms of speech and expression, as articulated in current legal standards.

14.3 Harassment – Sexual: unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, online, graphic, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostile conduct based on person’s Protected Status, when such conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it interferes with or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the university’s education or work programs or activities. Sexual Harassment may be subject to discipline when it takes the form of: 1) hostile environment; 2) quid pro quo harassment; and/or 3) retaliatory harassment.

14.4 Harassment – Hostile Environment: unwelcome conduct based on protected status that is so severe, persistent, or pervasive and objectively offensive that it unreasonably interferes with, denies, or limits someone’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s educational, social, and/or residential programs, thereby creating an environment that a reasonable person in similar circumstances and with similar identities would find hostile, intimidating, or abusive. An isolated incident, unless sufficiently severe, does not amount to Hostile Environment Harassment.

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20. OFFENSIVE OR DISRUPTIVE SPEECH/CONDUCT

20.1 Engaging in objectively offensive or disruptive speech or conduct directed toward a member of or visitor to the university community, if such language or conduct is obscene or so severe and pervasive as to constitute legally prohibited harassment in that it effectively prevents an individual from obtaining an education or creates an objectively hostile educational work environment.

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POL 04.05.01 – Free Speech Event Policy

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: April 10, 2018

4.1.a. The University supports outdoor assembly of persons for free speech activities, including vigils, protests, demonstrations, and similar activities. Therefore, the University is committed to making outdoor space available to university affiliated or unaffiliated groups or individuals for the purposes of free speech, assembly, and activities related to petition or redress.

4.1.b. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as limiting the right of student expression elsewhere in the outdoor, publicly available areas of campus. This includes the right to engage in spontaneous, unregistered expression, provided the expressive activity or related student conduct does not violate any other applicable university policies.

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4.1.2 Outdoor speech events in which more than 50 people are expected to attend shall require a reservation to be made at least two business days prior to the start of the event utilizing the Free Speech Event Application. Where an outdoor speech event was not initially expected to have more than 50 people, but evolves to exceed 50 people, the responsible sponsor(s), as applicable, shall make reasonable efforts to inform Campus Police (910-521-6235) of the activity with as much lead time as possible under the circumstances.

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The right to dissent is the complement of the right to speak, but these rights need not occupy the same forum at the same time. The speaker is entitled to communicate his/her message to the audience during her/his allotted time, and the audience is entitled to hear the message and see the speaker during that time. The dissenter must not substantially interfere with the speaker’s ability to communicate or the audience’s ability to hear and see the speaker. It is also unacceptable for such dissent to interfere with the free flow of traffic into or out of the event or to interfere substantially with the speaker’s communication.

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When the speech is closed, the sponsoring organization will ordinarily be responsible for funding extraordinary security measures required by the university. The determination of such security measures will be made using content- and viewpoint-neutral criteria, such as the size and nature of the venue; the anticipated size of the audience; whether the event will be open to the general public or limited to the campus community; and related factors. At no point will the content or viewpoint of the speech be a consideration in the determination of security measures.

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Policy Prohibiting Illegal Harassment and Discrimination

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: January 26, 2018

No student or student group shall engage in conduct, or assist another in the following conduct: … Harassment or intimidation directed toward a particular person or persons that is severe or pervasive and abuses or otherwise unreasonably interferes with another so as to adversely affect their academic pursuits, opportunities for university employment, participation in university-sponsored extracurricular activities, or opportunities to benefit from other aspects of university life; … The face-to-face use of “fighting words” to harass any person or persons on the university campus or other property under university control. “Fighting words” are those personally abusive epithets which, when directly addressed to any ordinary person, are in the context used and as a matter of common knowledge, inherently likely to provoke an immediate and violent reaction, whether or not they actually do so.

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NCSA, UNC accused of restricting free speech

July 2, 2007

A report published recently by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) criticized the UNC system, including the North Carolina School of the Arts, of violating the right to free speech guaranteed in the first amendment. In the report dated January 10, 2006, FIRE called the UNC system “…one of the most likely places to find rules and regulations that restrict expression or dictate matters of conscience….” The report, entitled The State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System, identifies policies stated in the UNC Board of Governors handbook, as well as in 13 of […]

Are colleges trying to be too nice?

January 24, 2006

RALEIGH – Can niceness be codified? Can you actually make a policy requiring politeness and only politeness? Apparently a number of colleges and universities across the nation, including some in North Carolina, think you can. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization monitoring First Amendment practices on college campuses throughout the nation, believes that a number of the state’s public universities go overboard in trying to mandate niceness. In fact, a report that FIRE recently issued says that policies at many schools in the University of North Carolina system are overbroad and likely unconstitutional. “Disproportionately, we are finding […]

Republicans and Libertarians, unite!

January 24, 2006

Dear George: First of all, I want to thank you and the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy for sponsoring my recent speech at Wake Forest University. I also want to apologize for wasting the students’ time by giving them some advice they really didn’t need. Please allow me to explain. One of the points I emphasized in my speech was the need for College Republican groups to form coalitions with other political groups – groups that do not necessarily share their political views – to combat First Amendment abuses at colleges and universities in North Carolina. I didn’t know […]

First Amendment covers campuses, too

January 22, 2006

News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) The First Amendment creates a free speech and assembly zone from one end of the United States to the other. Except at UNCG. University rules permit outdoor assemblies without prior approval only in two areas on campus. Even then, administrators must be given 48 hours’ notice. Fortunately, that policy is under review — just in time to prevent a legal challenge. Two students, members of College Libertarians, led a peaceful protest in front of Jackson Library in November and were charged with code-of-conduct violations. The proposed disciplinary actions against seniors Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott […]

A right not to be nice

January 19, 2006

by Barry Smith Times-News (Burlington, N.C.)   Attached Files A right not to be nice, PDF, 109.5 KB , Times-News (Burlington, N.C.)

UNC-G loses ground in free speech battle

January 19, 2006

Two UNC-Greensboro students recently charged with violating the university’s free speech policy are no longer in jeopardy of facing legal action. Administrators reprimanded Allison Jaynes and Robert Sinnott on Nov. 16 during their protest of the university’s free speech zones. Officials asked the students to move their demonstration to one of the two free speech zones on campus. The students refused, citing the First Amendment. UNC-G’s free speech zones were challenged again in December with the release of a report by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Robert Shibley, FIRE’s program manager, said the group has successfully challenged restrictions […]

Colleges to avoid, Part III

January 17, 2006

By Mike Adams at Townhall.com It probably comes as no surprise that the third university in my “colleges to avoid” series is located in North Carolina. Recently, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy published a report criticizing the UNC system for its blatant in intolerance of free expression. Of the sixteen campuses in the system, only one university – Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) – was not criticized in the report. While students in North Carolina may want to consider attending ECSU, they would do well to avoid The University […]

UNC System Suppressing Free Speech on Campuses, Says FIRE

January 17, 2006

By Jody Brown at Agape Press A new report finds that 13 out of 16 institutions in the University of North Carolina system have at least one policy that “clearly and substantially” restricts free speech. The report — released by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the Pope Center for Higher Education — accuses UNC of being especially hostile to Christian students and their religious liberty. The report is entitled “Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System” — and FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff says what is revealed in the report […]

That’s unconstitutional!

January 15, 2006

The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) Two groups that often criticize the University of North Carolina system said in a report last week that most UNC campuses have policies that restrict free speech and violate the Constitution. Here are excerpts from what the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said about Triangle campuses. N.C. CENTRAL UNIVERSITY NCCU’s Guide to On-Campus Living provides that “[s]tatements of intolerance and/or harassment due to race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, or sexual preference may be subject to disciplinary action.” This policy is unconstitutionally overbroad because it prohibits […]

Speech limits hurt purpose of college

January 14, 2006

By Ray Watters at Myrtle Beach Online GREENVILLE, N.C.—One of my funnier stories about college was how I got yelled at by three women the first week of my freshman year. It works better when you see me acting it out, so I’ll just cut to the punch line. My great offense was holding a door open for each of them. In the South. Horrors. It was a textbook example of what everyone had warned me about going to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Of course, all their warnings weren’t true. The seven people sharing my first dormitory suite […]

NC university system under fire

January 12, 2006

[To view the television broadcast of this story, please visit WWAYtv3.com.] WILMINGTON — North Carolina’s University system is coming under fire tonight for violating the constitution. A new study says the state system has serious first amendment violations at each state school. The report’s called [sic] Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, and that’s just what the author is looking to create. The report was done by conservative group, the Pope Center for Higher Education. The group comes down hardest on the larger state schools but found plenty of fault right here in Wilmington. They say UNCW’s biggest […]

Report blasts UNC’s ‘speech codes’

January 11, 2006

by Jane Stancill in The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) Most University of North Carolina campuses have policies that restrict free speech and violate the Constitution, according to a report Tuesday by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.The analysis was commissioned by the Pope Center, a Raleigh organization that often champions conservative causes, and was conducted by FIRE, a national group that takes on free speech issues on both ends of the political spectrum.The report suggested UNC campuses are vulnerable to lawsuits unless they change their so-called “speech codes.””Hopefully they can bring themselves […]

Report outlines limits on free speech

January 11, 2006

By Erin France at The Daily Tarheel Some UNC-system school policies of free speech and nondiscrimination violate the U.S. Constitution, according to a report released Tuesday. The report, created by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, detailed First Amendment violations, including violations in UNC-Chapel Hill’s network acceptable use policy, and cites two examples of religious discrimination against student organizations. In 2002, the University asked the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship to remove from its charter a provision requiring members to be Christians. And in 2003, the UNC-CH refused to recognize Christian fraternity Alpha […]

City & State Briefs

January 11, 2006

A report released Tuesday says some campuses in the University of North Carolina system impose unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech. The report cited examples such as Fayetteville State University’s ban on vulgar language and UNC Greensboro’s prohibition on “disrespect for persons.” The report suggested the UNC system pay more attention to First Amendment freedoms. It was issued by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Report: School limits on free speech illegal

January 11, 2006

News & Record (Greensboro, N.C.) RALEIGH – Some public universities in North Carolina impose unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech, a report issued Tuesday said. The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education released the report. “It’s a public school system,” Greg Lukianoff, interim president of the foundation, said at a news conference in the Legislative Building. “It’s bound by the First Amendment.” One example cited in the report was a prohibition by Fayetteville State University on vulgar language. Another example was the prohibition on “disrespect for persons” at UNCG. Later this month, […]

Report says state universities illegally limit free speech

January 10, 2006

Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. — Some public universities in North Carolina system impose unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech, according to a report issued Tuesday. The report was issued by the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. “It’s a public school system,” Greg Lukianoff, interim president of the foundation, said at a news conference in the Legislative Building. “It’s bound by the First Amendment.” One example cited in the report was a prohibition by Fayetteville State University on vulgar language. Another example was the prohibition on “disrespect for persons” at the University […]

Nearly Three Years Later, Significant Improvement at North Carolina’s Public Universities

September 22, 2008

In January 2006, FIRE and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy released a Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System. The report took an in-depth look at the speech codes in force at each of the sixteen universities in the UNC System and made detailed recommendations for how those codes could be improved. At the time, 13 of the 16 schools in the system received a “red-light” rating from FIRE for maintaining policies that clearly and substantially restricted students’ right to freedom of speech. Happily, a number of the […]

Report Exposes Extensive Constitutional Violations in University of North Carolina System

January 10, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C., January 10, 2006—Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy released their Report on the State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System. The Report explains precisely what the First Amendment obligations of the UNC System schools are—and shows that most of them are emphatically not meeting those obligations. “The revelations in our Report ought to outrage everyone in North Carolina,” said FIRE Interim President Greg Lukianoff. “The UNC System is disregarding the First Amendment at public expense, each and every day.” FIRE […]

The State of the First Amendment in the University of North Carolina System

January 10, 2006

A Joint Report of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Executive Summary If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us. —West Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson’s […]