University of North Florida

Resident Handbook: Decorations

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Residents are encouraged to decorate their rooms and apartments in a way that are pleasing and comfortable to them. However, residents are encouraged to be respectful of roommates and community members when decorating. In the event of a resident complaint over a roommate’s decoration, the Department of Housing and Residence Life will attempt to accommodate both parties and help to avoid conflict. This may include splitting up roommates into separate residences; however, the Department will not take down, censor, or punish student decorations on the basis of their content.

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Resident Handbook: Disorderly/Disruptive Behavior

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Disorderly and/or disruptive behavior includes: physical abuse, intimidation, inappropriate behavior or a pattern of behavior (either in a succession of closely related disruptive acts or a series of actions over a period of time) which disregards the rights of individuals, animals, the community, causes physical damage to property or interferes with the normal functioning or safety of the community.

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Resident Handbook: Harassment/Endangerment

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Behavior and actions that create an unreasonably intimidating, hostile, or offensive, living, educational or work environment for another person or group is not permitted. Behavior and actions that intimate, threaten, or harm the health, safety, or welfare of another person, group, or animal is not permitted.

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Policies and Regulations: Student Conduct Code

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Sexual Misconduct: … Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is severe, persistent or pervasive so as to limit or deny a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from an academic program, event or activity or to otherwise participate in campus life.

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Policies and Regulations: Student Conduct Code

Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Bullying/Cyberbullying: Repeated and/or severe aggressive behaviors with the intent to intimidate or harm another person, physically or emotionally, when such behaviors are not protected as freedom of speech. Examples of such conduct include stalking, harassment, and invasion of privacy.

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Resident Handbook: Diversity Statement

Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 6, 2017

We will not tolerate or ignore any form of behavior pertaining harassment, intimidation, threats or physical abuse.

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Policies and Regulations: Non-Discrimination, Equal Opportunity and Diversity Regulation

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

“Harassment”  means unwelcome conduct about an individual or protected class covered by this regulation that is sufficiently serious (i.e., severe, persistent or pervasive) to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the University’s educational programs or activities or such conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of, or have the purpose and effect of substantially interfering with, a faculty or staff member’s employment by creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Harassment can include such acts as making slurs, physical assaults or threats, and intimidation, when such conduct rises to the level of the definition provided above.

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Policies and Regulations: Sexual Misconduct Regulation

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

“Sexual harassment” means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal (including written and electronic communications when such communications are not protected as freedom of speech) or physical conduct of a sexual nature from any person when: … Such conduct is sufficiently serious (i.e., severe, persistent or pervasive) to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the University’s educational programs or activities or such conduct is sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of, or have the purpose and effect of substantially interfering with, a faculty or staff member’s employment by creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.

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The following are common examples of unwelcome conduct when sex-based that may rise to the level of sexual harassment as defined in this regulation. Actions that are sufficiently serious, severe, persistent or pervasive that may be found to constitute Sexual Harassment include:

• Inappropriate touching or brushing against the body of another including, but not limited to patting, fondling, massaging, caressing, pinching, attempted or actual kissing.
• Requesting sex or sexual acts in exchange for an occupational or educational benefit.
• Repetitive propositions, invitations or pressure for sexual activity by a party when the other party finds the propositions and invitations to be unwelcome.
• Suggestive or inappropriate sex-based communications, notes, letters, e-mail, text messages, contact through social media (i.e. – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) or other written materials.
• Displaying, transmitting or sending sexually based suggestive or inappropriate photographs, videos, computer images, slides, calendars, cartoons or drawings through any medium.
• Sexual innuendo, comments, or remarks about a person’s clothing, body, or activities which places an individual in fear of imminent physical or psychological harm or injury.
• Actual or implied sexual threats or intimidation which places an individual in fear of imminent physical or psychological harm or injury.

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Policies and Regulations: Use of Amplified Sound in University Facilities; Outdoor Areas; Demonstrations and Other Outdoor Events

Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: September 6, 2017

Outdoor areas on the campus which are not committed to a specific use or assigned to a specific University entity, such as the area located adjacent to the Arena and the Wellness Center, are free to be used for informal, unscheduled, and unamplified expressions of opinion or musical events by persons participating as individuals without registration or approval.

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Demonstrations may be held anywhere on the campus, so long as they do not disrupt the normal operations of the University or infringe on the rights of other members of the University community, except that no demonstrations are permitted inside University buildings. Demonstrations using a public address system or other electronic amplification and/or involving a substantial outdoor area of the campus and/or a large number of people must be scheduled in accordance with subsection (6) of this regulation. In the event of disruptive action, the procedures set forth in subsections (8)-(10) of this regulation will apply.

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University of Chicago Dumps Speech Codes, Earns Highest Rating From Free-Speech Group

April 26, 2016

By Staff at The College Fix It pioneered the faculty statement in favor of freedom of expression, and now the University of Chicago has earned a coveted green-light rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education… Read more here.

New Threat to Campus Speech: Department of Education’s Plans for Racial Harassment, Report Says

December 11, 2015

By Peter Maxwell at The College Fix Fear that agency’s guidance could ‘parallel’ broad sexual-harassment rules Despite a plunge this year in the number of universities with severe restrictions on free speech, new threats are on the horizon thanks to outgoing Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s recent statements on racial issues, according to a new report. For the first time since the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education started tracking speech codes on college campuses, less than half of American colleges it has rated maintain “red light” policies, FIRE’s annual “Spotlight” report said. Between September 2014 and September 2015, FIRE downgraded 10 universities […]

Report: Campus Free Speech Might Be Spreading, But the Federal Government Wants to Stop That

December 10, 2015

By Robby Soave at Reason.com Some good news and some bad news from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education: the number of college campuses maintaining restrictions on speech has decreased for an eighth consecutive year, but the Education Department’s guidance on sexual harassment continues to pose a significant threat to free expression. According to FIRE’s 2016 report on “The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses,” just 49.3 percent of American universities maintain severely unconstitutional speech codes. This is the first time in FIRE’s 16-year history that statistic has dipped below 50 percent. Additionally, six universities eliminated speech […]

UNF’s ‘Green Light’ to Benefit Everyone on Campus

September 25, 2015

By Bob Kellogg at OneNewsNow A university in Florida has earned the coveted “green light” rating from an organization that aims to “defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities.” Azhar Majeed of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) says by eliminating all of its unconstitutional speech codes, the University of North Florida has earned a “green light” rating — the foundation’s top ranking when it comes to free speech on campuses. “This is our fifth ‘green light’ school of this year. Typically these kinds of policy changes can be hard to come by,” he tells […]

FIRE Gives University Of North Florida Highest Rating For Free Speech

September 11, 2015

By Aleister at College Insurrection This is one of the best ratings a college can get these days. The FIRE blog reports. University of North Florida Earns FIRE’s Highest Rating for Free Speech JACKSONVILLE, Fla., September 10, 2015—The University of North Florida (UNF) has eliminated all of its unconstitutional speech codes, earning the highest, “green light” rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). With assistance from FIRE, UNF has joined a prestigious group of colleges and universities that have reformed their policies on student and faculty expression to ensure compliance with First Amendment principles. […]

Barely Two Dozen Colleges Respect Free Speech, And University Of North Florida Just Became One

September 10, 2015

By College Fix Staff at The College Fix The University of North Florida got some good PR today when it was crowned with a student-rights group’s highest distinction for its policies on expression. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education gave the school a “green light” rating for eliminating speech codes, coming far from where it started a year ago: FIRE began working with UNF in October 2014, when UNF had three speech codes earning FIRE’s worst, “red light” rating and an additional three policies earning a “yellow light” rating. Those codes covered sexual harassment, residence life, and bullying/cyberbullying, FIRE […]

UNF proposal revises rules on free speech rights on campus

February 26, 2004

Free speech would no longer be confined to a corner of campus under new rules University of North Florida officials passed Wednesday.The decision revises a proposal that restricted impromptu demonstrations, speeches or even acoustic music to a “free speech zone” between the Robinson Student Life Center and the Fine Arts Center. To speak out anywhere else, students had to apply for a permit three weeks in advance.The Educational Policy Committee of the Board of Trustees approved the rules unanimously. The full board still has to approve the changes and will consider the issue at its March meeting. Trustees tabled the […]

Life sometimes imitates fiction in frightening way

September 21, 2003

University of North Florida Earns FIRE’s Highest Rating for Free Speech

September 10, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., September 10, 2015—The University of North Florida (UNF) has eliminated all of its unconstitutional speech codes, earning the highest, “green light” rating for free speech from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). With assistance from FIRE, UNF has joined a prestigious group of colleges and universities that have reformed their policies on student and faculty expression to ensure compliance with First Amendment principles. “As a new academic year begins, I’m very excited to see another university join the growing list of green light institutions,” said Azhar Majeed, Director of FIRE’s Individual Rights Education Program. “UNF’s students, […]

Florida Highway Patrol Officer Admits He Stole Copies of U. North Florida Student Paper

July 29, 2013

Thousands of copies of the UNF Spinnaker, the University of North Florida’s (UNF’s) student newspaper, were reported missing last month, and university police have identified one of the men responsible: Florida Highway Patrol officer and UNF graduate Steven Coppola. The issue Coppola confessed to removing from newsstands contained a story detailing the arrest of a friend of Coppola’s, Joshua Hott, who was charged with video voyeurism after allegedly filming a young man in a restroom. According to the Spinnaker, Coppola said he was worried about how the story might affect Hott’s younger brother, a student at UNF. According to Spinnaker […]

Questions Surround Funding Freeze of UNF Student Paper

March 29, 2011

The racy cover photo from the latest issue of the University of North Florida (UNF) student newspaper, the Spinnaker, has caused a stir at the UNF campus and made some waves in the press. Chief among the media outlets to cover the matter is the Florida Times-Union, where Kate Howard has written a good summary of the controversy. The cover itself is suggestive of a man performing oral sex on a woman—a way of promoting the issue’s feature on the health risks of oral sex. Josh Gore, editor in chief of the Spinnaker, describes the cover’s shock value as “minimal,” […]

CFN Conference Attendee Takes the Spirit Back to Campus at University of North Florida

October 11, 2010

University of North Florida (UNF) student and 2010 CFN Conference attendee Edgar Aroutiounian recently published an op-ed in his school’s newspaper, The Spinnaker, exposing UNF’s speech policies. In the op-ed (page 9 of PDF file), Edgar does a great job of discussing the importance of allowing unbridled discourse at a public university such as UNF and calling for reform of UNF’s speech codes. An eager attendee of our summer student conference (so eager, in fact, that he drove all night to make it to Philadelphia in time!), Edgar has certainly taken the CFN spirit back to campus with him. Edgar’s […]