School Spotlight
Western Illinois University
Speech Code Rating
Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy: Other Actions Prohibited By This Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021● Hate speech as defined as: public speech, written language, or graphic material that encourages or incites violence or physical threats of harm against someone based on their status in a protected class such as race, religion, disability, veteran status, age, or gender. This language : ● has the purpose or effect ... Read MoreDiscrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021With the exception of Title IX Sexual Harassment as defined below in Section 17.c., harassment under this section of the policy includes all forms of sexual, racial and other harassment on the basis of actual or perceived membership in a class protected by policy or law (as listed in the categories noted in this pol... Read MoreResidence Hall Handbook: Decorating your Room
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021While you may decorate the inside of your room to suit your tastes, the outside of your door and window are considered available to public view. The University will not allow the posting of items that are deemed to be racist, sexist, indecent, scandalous, illegal, inciting, or in any way oppressive in nature. The us... Read MoreDistribution of Printed Materials and Collection of Signatures Policy
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Protest and Demonstration Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021To promote the free exchange of ideas, Western Illinois University permits students, faculty, employees, and the general public to distribute printed materials and to solicit signatures on the campus, subject to the time, place, and manner restrictions set forth in this policy. … All printed material in whatev... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct
Speech Code Rating: Yellow
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021Any student found to have committed or to have attempted to commit the following misconduct is subject to the disciplinary sanctions, including separation from the University or a lesser sanction authorized by the Code. … Engaging in harmful or potentially harmful behaviors, including, but not limited to, the ... Read MoreDiscrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy: Title IX Sexual Harassment
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: August 31, 2021Title IX Sexual Harassment is defined as conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following: … 2) Sexual Harassment: a. unwelcome conduct, b. determined by a reasonable person, c. to be so severe, AND d. pervasive, AND e. objectively offensive, f. that it effectively denies a person equal ... Read MoreCode of Student Conduct: Introduction
Speech Code Rating: Green
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: August 31, 2021As citizens of the larger community in which the University is located, students retain the rights and responsibilities common to all citizens; affiliation with the University does not diminish the rights and responsibilities held by a student or any other community member as a citizen of the State, the nation, or t... Read More
Western Illinois University: Police Demand Students Promoting Marijuana Legalization Use Long-Shuttered “Free Speech Area”
September 5, 2019
In March 2019, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at Western Illinois University gathered in an open area of the University Union to advocate for the legalization of marijuana, holding a sign teasing the availability of “free ‘pot’ brownies”—brownies, without marijuana, inside of a pot. The students were stopped by campus police, who… Read more
Tick, tock: Western Illinois University’s ‘free speech area’ still running the clock
September 20, 2019
Earlier this month, we wrote about how Western Illinois University pledged to abandon its “free speech area” in 2003 but still scatters references to the supposedly discontinued area in its policies. The university’s police apparently did not believe that the free speech area had been closed, as they were still attempting to enforce it earlier… Read more
Western Illinois University’s ‘zombie’ free speech zone resurrected to shut down satirical ‘pot’ brownies event
September 5, 2019
MACOMB, Ill., Sept. 5, 2019 — More than 16 years after Western Illinois University announced it was “immediately” eliminating its free speech zone, students are still feeling the bite of a zombie policy — one the university declared dead long ago but still lives on in university speech codes. Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights… Read more