School Spotlight

University of North Texas

Location: Denton, Texas
Type: Public
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Speech Code Rating

University of North Texas has been given the speech code rating Yellow. Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application. Read more

  • Policy Manual: 14.003 Computer Use

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
    Last updated: December 20, 2019

    When communicating with others via the University computer system, a user’s communications should reflect high ethical standards, mutual respect and civility. Read More

  • Policy Manual: 16.005 Sexual Harassment

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: March 15, 2021

    4. Sexual Harassment. “Sexual Harassment” means unwelcome sex-based verbal or physical conduct that: … B. in the education context, is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that the conduct interferes with a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from educational programs or activities. For pur... Read More

  • Policy Manual: 07.012 University of North Texas Code of Student Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: March 15, 2021

    Engaging in physical or verbal abuse, fighting, threats, intimidation, coercion, or any other conduct that threatens or endangers the health, safety or welfare of any person. Speech protected by the Constitutions of the United States and Texas is not a violation of this provision, but fighting words and statements w... Read More

  • Policy Manual: 07.012 University of North Texas Code of Student Conduct

    Speech Code Rating: Yellow
    Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
    Last updated: March 15, 2021

    “Sexual Harassment” means the unwelcome, sex-based verbal or physical conduct that: … in the education context, is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that the conduct interferes with a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from educational programs or activities. For purposes of this policy... Read More

  • Policy Manual: 07.006 Free Speech and Public Assembly on Campus Grounds

    Speech Code Rating: Green
    Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
    Last updated: March 15, 2021

    The University of North Texas (UNT) recognizes that freedom of expression and public assembly are fundamental rights of all persons and are essential components of the education process. … Campus grounds generally are open to students, employees and visitors for expressive activity. However, individuals and or... Read More

  • Punished for his scholarship, University of North Texas music professor files federal lawsuit

    January 21, 2021

    6 p.m. EST: This post has been updated and edited to address defamation claims in Jackson’s lawsuit.  When University of North Texas music professor Timothy Jackson published an essay critical of a fellow music scholar’s speech on “music theory’s white racial frame,” UNT graduate students and faculty demanded that Jackson face punishment for expressing those… Read more

  • So to Speak podcast: Campus mobs, heckler’s vetoes, racial segregation, and a rogue student government!

    November 13, 2020

    On today’s episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast, we are joined by FIRE’s Robert Shibley and Adam Goldstein to discuss recent cases of censorship — and a case of racial segregation — on campus. Show notes: Teaching history not permitted: St. John’s bulldozes academic freedom, punishes professor for posing question about ‘Columbian… Read more

  • Amidst FIRE’s record-breaking summer, demands to terminate faculty went mainstream

    October 13, 2020

    20 minutes in Saratoga Springs It’s worth getting to know the case of Skidmore College professor David Peterson, if you haven’t read about it.  Peterson, an art professor at Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, New York for more than 30 years, unwittingly came into notoriety when he and his wife checked out a pro-police rally near… Read more

  • Non-profit group asks University of North Texas to turn over ‘biased’ student newspaper’s records

    August 12, 2020

    In the wake of calls for a Texas university to disband a conservative student organization — a move that would violate the First Amendment — a non-profit group is attempting to use the state’s open records law to force a student newspaper that reported on the controversy to turn over its notes. The university has… Read more

  • University of North Texas investigates music theory journal for defending 19th century composer from racism charges

    August 6, 2020

    DENTON, Texas, Aug. 6, 2020 — Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is defending a Schenkerian music theory journal at the University of North Texas, and its editors, from an unwarranted investigation into alleged racism. “This just goes to show you that no area of academia, however obscure, is immune to those who… Read more

  • Fired for his views, UNT math professor brings free speech lawsuit

    April 27, 2020

    In total defiance of the First Amendment, the University of North Texas has fired a math professor for criticizing the concept of microaggressions and for refusing to attend extra diversity training to correct his views, which the math department chair deemed “not compatible with the values of this department.”   Now, professor Nathaniel Hiers is suing… Read more

  • Flag Day reminder at UNT: The First Amendment protects showing ‘disrespect’ for flag

    June 14, 2019

    Just in time for Flag Day, a University of North Texas student, Yolian Ogbu, has received extensive criticism on Twitter for covering up the American flag with a Black Lives Matter flag in the Student Government Association office. Ogbu, recently-elected president of SGA, posted two pictures on her personal Twitter account: a “before” picture of… Read more

  • Student Spotlight: Alex Anderson, Marketing Freedom at University of North Texas

    June 27, 2014

    Alex Anderson is a junior at the University of North Texas (UNT), where she is ramping up the student movement for free speech on campus. As a public relations and strategic communications major, Alex has been applying her ingenuity in marketing to the fight for freedom of expression.

  • How Students Made a Difference for Liberty in 2009

    January 6, 2010

    For the past few days FIRE has been looking back over our list of accomplishments in 2009. That list would not be complete without mentioning the students who have worked so hard to make their campuses more free. At the College of William & Mary, former FIRE intern and Campus Freedom Network member Braum Katz… Read more

  • Under Pressure from FIRE and Students, University of North Texas Eliminates Free Speech Zones

    October 26, 2009

    FIRE is very pleased to report that the University of North Texas (UNT) has revised its “Free Speech and Public Assembly Policy,” which previously provided for only six “free speech areas” on campus where students could “engage in constitutionally protected speech and expression at the University of North Texas.” The policy further required students and… Read more

  • Bigger in Texas?

    February 22, 2005

    Responding to our recent post about the University of North Texas, a reader from Texas wrote: Well, I appreciate your understanding of the scale of things here in Texas. I noticed that, in your discussion of the fun at North Texas, you made reference to “nearby Texas Tech.” We are about 300 miles from North… Read more

  • Calls for Censorship in Texas

    February 21, 2005

    The Denton, Texas, Record-Chronicle carried a story on Saturday (registration required) about an uproar over a free-expression issue at the University of North Texas. Apparently, the university chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) at UNT held a “Capture an Illegal Immigrant” event to draw attention to what they see as the problem of… Read more