In October of 2016, the Charger Bulletin covered the controversy at the University of New Haven involving Sheriff David Clarke and his revoked invitation to speak here for the 25th Annual Markle Symposium. Students began questioning the free speech rights they had on campus, including how the university values the diversity of ideas.
The Charger Bulletin will be going through a series examining campus free speech, specific to UNH. We will be using information and guidance provided by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
Founded in 1999, FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation based in Philadelphia whose mission is to protect free speech on college campuses. FIRE as an organization is nonpartisan, and its members range in political ideology, according to their website. Their online database provides information on the policies outlined by public and private universities and rates them based on their tendency to allow free speech.
Their ratings, ranging from red to yellow to green, show the degree of freedom students have on campus in a wide range of applicable speech and expression.
We had FIRE do a rating on UNH, which we will be examining and comparing to other similar schools in the coming weeks. Although they did not offer an overall rating, they did rate each policy related to speech, none of which received the green light.
UNH and other private schools are unique in that they are not legally bound by the first amendment.
“Although UNH is a private university and thus not legally bound by the First Amendment, it makes institutional promises that bind it morally and perhaps contractually to protect free speech,” says Laura Beltz, a Program Officer for Policy Reform at FIRE.
Over the coming weeks, we will be looking into the details of several UNH policies, including Student Protest and Demonstration Policy, Guidelines for Advertising on Campus, Harassment Provisions, Internet Policies, Bias Motivated Offenses, and Sexual Misconduct Policy. We will also be pulling information from Supreme Court cases that examine free speech and whether those policies are enforced on campus.
Let us know your opinion on UNH’s free speech policies by emailing [email protected].