Red Light Policies

• Civil Rights Discrimination

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  Discrimination includes: … Sexual harassment – Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, sexually motivated physical conduct or other verbal or physical conduct or communication of a sexual nature.

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• Student Code of Conduct: Offenses Against Persons

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  Verbal, written or graphic abuse, including threats, intimidation, harassment, coercion or other conduct that creates a climate of fear or which is reasonably expected to cause mental or emotional distress.

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• Policies & Procedures for Residence Life & Dining Services: General Policies

  Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  Community and Civility

  • Actions which disrupt the community and/or otherwise make the atmosphere unwelcoming to individuals are prohibited.

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• Policy and Protocol on Sexual Discrimination, Violence, and Harassment Including Students

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that includes verbal, written, or physical behavior of a sexual nature, directed at someone, or against a particular group, because of that person’s or group’s sex or sexual orientation, or based on gender stereotypes, when that behavior is unwelcome and meets either of the following criteria:

  …

  (2) The behavior has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with the student’s work or educational performance by creating an intimidating, hostile, or demeaning environment for employment, education, on-campus living, or participation in a University activity. Examples of this type of sexual harassment can include:

  (a) persistent unwelcomed efforts to develop a romantic or sexual relationship

  (b) unwelcome commentary about an individual’s body or sexual activities

  (c) unwanted sexual attention.

  (d) repeated and unwelcome sexually-oriented teasing, joking, or flirting

  (e) verbal abuse of a sexual nature.

  Comments or communications could be verbal, written, or electronic. Behavior does not need to be directed at or to a specific student, but rather may be generalized unwelcomed and unnecessary comments based on sex or gender stereotypes.

  Determination of whether alleged conduct constitutes sexual harassment requires consideration of all the circumstances, including the context in which the alleged incidents occurred.

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• Recognized Student Organization Handbook: Publicity Policies

  Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  Advertising must be approved by a staff member in the Campus Activities Center. If the event is on campus and open to the campus community, written approval must be received for the event through the event form on Collegiate Link. The advertisement, publicity, sign, or banner must be in good taste and appropriate for its intended purpose. Posted materials must be removed by sponsor no later than one (1) day after the event has occurred. Materials posted using the Campus Activities Center poster run will be removed by the Campus Activities Center staff.

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• Student Code of Conduct: Definitions

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 19, 2016

  “Harassment” is words, conduct or action (usually repeated or persistent) that, being directed at a specific person, annoys, alarms, or causes substantial emotional distress in that person and serves no legitimate purpose.

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• Campus Hate Crime Hoaxes: A Best-Of List

  December 17, 2014

  By Michael Cipriano at The College Fix From New Jersey to Wyoming, college campuses around the country have been plagued with hate crime hoaxes in recent years. Sometimes justified as trying to raise awareness for progressive social causes, the hoaxes often worked. The College Fix compiled this list of recent university hate crime hoaxes. Racist Facebook messages posted by student himself – November 2014 A University of Chicago student admitted to posting racist and violent messages against himself on his Facebook page after claiming his account was hacked. The elaborate hoax was an attempt to shame the school into making policy changes addressing race […]

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• ‘Hate Crime’ Hoaxes

  May 2, 2013

  by James Taranto The Wall Street Journal     A student at the University of Wyoming has received a misdemeanor citation for a Facebook post that “allegedly threatened” a female UW student, the amusingly named Laramie Boomerang reports. The target of the post was Meg Lanker-Simons. The student who is accused of sending it is Meg Lanker-Simons. CampusReform.org has the full text of the post except for a partly redacted four-letter obscenity. As this is the website of a family newspaper, we’ll rely on the Boomerang’s sanitized description: The post was made April 24 to the UW Crushes page on […]

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• University of Wyoming to Host Much-Needed Discussion on Freedom of Expression

  September 13, 2010

  We haven’t been that nice to the University of Wyoming here on The Torch in recent months. Then again, the university’s recent antics—banning education professor and former Weather Underground leader William Ayers from speaking on the campus and then losing $86,000 of Wyoming taxpayer money trying to defend this indefensible decision in court—haven’t made it the easiest to love. After being dragged through the mud here and elsewhere, however, I’m encouraged to see UW’s announcement that it will hold a forum on the subject of freedom of expression on its campus. The university’s press release states that the event “will […]

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• How FIRE Tried to Save Wyoming Taxpayers $86,000

  July 12, 2010

  We’ve written a number of times here about the University of Wyoming’s ill-advised and unconstitutional attempts to prevent education professor and former Weather Underground leader William Ayers from speaking on the UW campus after he was duly invited. We predicted that this effort would fail miserably and expensively, and we were, of course, right. Most recently, I wrote here that the attempted end-run around the First Amendment cost the university and, ultimately, the people of Wyoming $50,000. That $50,000 doesn’t tell the whole story, as we’ve learned recently, for it only covers the legal fees for the plaintiffs, Ayers and […]

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• Citizens of Wyoming Docked $50,000 for UW’s Disregard of the First Amendment

  May 21, 2010

  The drama surrounding the recent appearance of Professor William Ayers at the University of Wyoming has come to an end, it seems, and an expensive end at that. Ayers and UW student Meg Lanker agreed to drop their lawsuit against the university after UW agreed to pay $50,000 in legal fees for the plaintiffs, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Like a loaded gun in a Chekhov drama whose presence guarantees it will be discharged before the play’s end, this outcome was foreseeable. Unlike the world of Uncle Vanya or The Seagull, however, it was eminently avoidable. FIRE had publicly warned […]

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• Ringing Endorsement of the First Amendment in University of Wyoming Court Defeat

  April 28, 2010

  As we reported yesterday, U.S. District Judge William Downes was unconvinced by the University of Wyoming’s defense of its ban of education professor and co-founder of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers, and ordered that Ayers be allowed to speak on campus in Downes’ decision yesterday afternoon. As Adam noted, FIRE and other civil liberties advocates had reason to be optimistic about yesterday’s decision after the hearing, as Judge Downes and plaintiffs’ attorney David Lane dashed the credibility of the university’s defense by sharply questioning the legitimacy of the threats the school cited as justification for excluding Ayers. The Casper Star-Tribune‘s […]

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• Federal Court Orders University of Wyoming to Allow Ayers to Speak

  April 27, 2010

  In a true “dog bites man” story for those who follow FIRE or are conversant with the First Amendment, the Associated Press is reporting that a federal judge has ordered the University of Wyoming to allow University of Illinois-Chicago professor and former Weather Underground leader William Ayers to speak on its Laramie campus. FIRE has been pointing out the inevitability of this development for some time, and just this afternoon noted that things weren’t looking so good for the university’s effort at censorship once the judge had told the university president in yesterday’s hearing that threats of violence do not […]

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• ‘Heckler’s Veto’ Crumbling in Wyoming Court after Ayers Cancellation

  April 27, 2010

  Free speech is winning points against violent agitators in the wake of the University of Wyoming’s choice to ban from speaking on campus controversial education professor William Ayers, whose former organization Weather Underground once made a point of being violent agitators. As Peter described last Thursday, students and faculty at the University of Wyoming (UW) held a demonstration in support of free speech on campus, and Ayers, along with student Meg Lanker, has sued the university following two failed attempts to bring him to the campus. Peter’s post has most of the details, including some choice quotations from the lawsuit. […]

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• After Cancellation of Ayers Appearance, University of Wyoming Students Rally for Free Speech

  April 22, 2010

  Today, students and faculty at the University of Wyoming (UW) are holding a demonstration in support of free speech in the wake of a cancelled appearance by education professor and Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers. Ayers  has sued the university following two failed attempts to bring him to the campus. Ayers had originally been scheduled to appear at UW on April 5 and 6, hosted by UW’s Social Justice Research Center (SJRC). Though the controversy surrounding his appearance only swelled in the final days prior to his scheduled visit, the appearance had been planned at least as far back as […]

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