Location: Evansville, Indiana
Website: http://www.usi.edu/
Type: Public
Federal Circuit: 7th Circuit
University of Southern Indiana 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 here.
Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities- Harassment (General)
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Harassment is any conduct based on the victim’s actual or perceived identification with a particular class or classes protected by law or University policy that creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile working or learning environment that interferes with the victim’s work or education, or that adversely affects their living conditions. Such harassment can be physical, verbal or visual, and can be committed by employers, coworkers, faculty and students. Statements and/or conduct legitimately and reasonably related to the University’s mission of education will generally not constitute harassment under this policy.
Student Handbook: Student Organizations and Activities- Sales, Solicitation, and Fundraising
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Solicitation shall be defined as the act of making a request or plea for one’s cause or philanthropy and includes the receipt of or request for any gift or contribution.
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Application for approval for sales, solicitation, and fundraising (including athletic events and events held in Housing and Residence Life areas) must be initiated with the Office of Student Development Programs. Approval for all activities must be received prior to beginning these activities. This must occur whether or not you are reserving university space.
Student Affairs: USI Creed
Speech Code Category: Policies Restricting Freedom of Conscience
Last updated: March 1, 2017Member of the USI community…
I will practice personal and academic integrity; I will reject and confront all manifestations of discrimination while striving to learn from differences in people, ideas, and opinions;
I will demonstrate concern for others, their feelings, their property, and their need for conditions which support their work and development;
Allegiance to these ideals requires that I refrain from and discourage behaviors which threaten the freedom and respect every individual deserves.
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If you experience or observe actions on campus which are not in accordance with the USI Creed, please contact the Dean of Students Office at 812/464-1862.
Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities- Disorderly Conduct/Indecent Behavior
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Disorderly, lewd, indecent, bullying, cyber-bullying, or obscene conduct is prohibited, including the expression of such on University-owned or -controlled property or at University-sponsored or -supervised events, on or off campus.
Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities- Threatening or Intimidating Behavior
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Behavior that involves an expressed or implied threat, which includes, but is not limited to the use of words verbal, written, or electronic (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) inherently likely to provide an immediate violent reaction when directed toward a specific individual, or any behavior that has the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of creating a hostile environment by, but not limited to, interfering with another individual’s personal safety, safety of property, academic efforts, employment, or participation in University-sponsored activities and causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension that such harm is about to occur, is prohibited.
Data Communications and Computer Use Policy
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Unacceptable activities … 12. Sending or leaving abusive, obscene messages or content via computer. 13. Harassing other users by the sending unwanted messages or files.
Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities- Social Media Policy
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017USI will not regularly monitor the language and/or actions of students on social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. However, while the University will defer to the user policies of the individual social medium, USI will hold students accountable for reported related Code of Student Behavior violations by USI students.
Students may not:
- Post messages that: incite imminent lawless action or are otherwise unlawful harassment, are defamatory or otherwise unlawful.
- Claim or imply that they are speaking on behalf of the University.
Student Handbook: Student Rights and Responsibilities- Student’s Rights
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: March 1, 2017A student has the right to participate in a free exchange of ideas, and there shall be no University policy that in any way abridges the rights of freedom of speech, expression, petition, and peaceful assembly in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
University Handbook: Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: March 1, 2017Harassment is a course of conduct that a reasonable person would find so severe or pervasive and objectively offensive that it unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or education program participation, or that creates a hostile work environment. Such harassment can be physical, written, verbal, or visual and other non- verbal actions, and can be committed by employers, faculty, administrators, support staff, co-workers, students, and third parties. Harassment, when based on the victim’s actual or perceived identification with a particular protected class or classes, is a form of discrimination.
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University of Southern Indiana Adopts the Chicago Statement
August 31, 2016
The University of Southern Indiana (USI) has added the Chicago Statement—the FIRE-endorsed principles declaring free expression paramount on campus—to its employee handbook. USI joins more than a dozen other institutions at which faculty or administrative bodies have formally endorsed the 2015 University of Chicago (UChicago)-authored statement, which FIRE has called the gold standard for free speech policy statements in higher education. “We believe that that statement really speaks to the way the university believes we should be approaching and interpreting speech,” said Kindra Strupp, USI’s Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications. While some schools have chosen to tailor the […]
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Student Paper Highlights University of Southern Indiana’s Speech Codes
April 9, 2010
In an article published yesterday in The Shield, the student newspaper at the University of Southern Indiana (USI), student Zach Evans highlights the unconstitutional speech policies in force at USI. Evans opens with an examination of USI’s free speech zone policy. With that in mind, what does free speech mean at USI? It all begins in the area set aside for the sole purpose of the exercise of free speech. Universities were at one point in time were (sic) the breeding ground for social activism and political protest. During the 1960’s and 70’s the Vietnam War polarized young adults who […]
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