Following controversies over free speech this fall, the state’s Board of Regents voted to approve policies Wednesday aimed at bolstering free discussion on college campuses, including penalties for free speech violations and restrictions on public policy positions by college leadership.
Since the onset of the school year, an Iowa State University professor barred arguments that opposed topics like Black Lives Matter and gay rights and a conservative student group tweeted that people should “Arm up” after Joe Biden won the presidency; University of Northern Iowa student government leaders prevented an anti-abortion student group from forming, saying it could create a hostile environment on campus; and questions swirled at the University of Iowa after the College of Dentistry summoned a student to a disciplinary hearing for publicly supporting a Trump executive order.
Questions about how to handle such incidents and the climate that similar events create on a college campus prompted Board of Regents President Michael Richards to create a committee charged with analyzing the condition of free speech at the three universities in November.
“The Board of Regents and our universities absolutely support free speech and open dialogue. Every faculty, staff and student must feel confident that their constitutional rights are protected on our campuses and that they will not face retribution for exercising their rights,” Richards said at a Wednesday meeting. “We must be honest and recognize that there have been several recent events when this expectation has not been met.”
Free Speech Committee will remain a permanent fixture of the Regents
On Wednesday, the regents unanimously approved 10 recommendations made by the board’s Free Speech Committee, which currently consists of Regents David Barker, Nancy Boettger and Zack Leist.
The committee will remain a permanent fixture of the Regents and be responsible for handling free speech complaints, reviewing policies, conducting surveys and research, and ensuring universities provide yearly training on free speech. Regents are planning to incorporate the full set of recommendations into current Board of Regents policy and present the final language for approval in April.
The universities will also be expected to add “policies and procedures, including penalties for violations of free expression,” to current policy language. The regents did not elaborate on what those penalties might entail at the meeting.
Members of college leadership will also be barred from taking institutional positions on policies unless it’s in conjunction with the Board of Regents.
“When the university itself, or its departments and administrators, take stands on social issues, individuals are discouraged from thinking for themselves, and the mission of the university is compromised,” Barker said at the meeting Wednesday.
The Free Speech Committee, he said, was created “to consider policy changes to counter what we see as disturbing incidents and trends that threaten freedom of expression and freedom of academic inquiry.”
Committee recommendations echo incidents from 2020 fall
Earlier this month, the Republican-led House Government Oversight Committee summoned representatives from the three regents universities to testify about free speech issues on their campuses.
In August, an Iowa State professor’s syllabus said students could not “choose any topic that takes at its base that one side doesn’t deserve the same basic human rights as you do (ie: no arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter, etc).”
The university took “corrective action” against the professor after that stance came to light.
“We very quickly moved from this, again, disappointing, egregious action by one faculty member, addressed that situation, and now have put into place a systemwide approach to prevent that from happening in the future,” President Wendy Wintersteen said of the incident at the Feb. 2 legislative hearing.
The recommendations by the Regents’ Free Speech Committee require syllabi to include a statement in support of free speech, a measure Iowa State has already implemented. The statement is expected to be reviewed at the beginning of each course.
Regents also voted to approve policy language that would prohibit members of university leadership — including presidents, vice presidents, deans and department directors — from taking institutional positions on policies unless the statement is made alongside the Regents.
It’s not uncommon for university leadership to take policy positions, and University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld, other top administrators, and 29 members of the College of Dentistry publicly condemned an executive order by the Trump administration just last fall.
The order prohibited universities and other public institutions from holding certain diversity trainings that it said suggested individuals can unconsciously hold racist or sexist thoughts. Critics of the order said it clamped down on diversity efforts that challenge systemic racism and, in December, a federal judge in California issued a preliminary nationwide injunction against it.
“We are deeply disappointed in both the intention behind and the language used in the executive order, which carries the force of law,” Harreld wrote in a campuswide statement at the time.
Leadership of the dentistry school, including the dean, sent an email in October to the entire college condemning the order. Many students and faculty replied.
One student, Michael Brase, said he thought the university should support the executive order and asked for further clarification about the dental school’s position on it. College leadership then summoned Brase to a disciplinary hearing for “unprofessional conduct” related to the exchange of emails.
But the hearing never happened because Brase contacted state legislators with concerns about his right to freedom of speech being violated.
The dentistry college’s dean, David Johnsen, apologized to members of the House Government Oversight Committee earlier this month about the incident, both for his public condemnation of the executive order and for the college’s initial decision to summon Brase to a hearing.
► More:University of Iowa’s College of Dentistry dean wrong to apologize to lawmakers over Trump criticisms
Under the committee’s recommendations, the universities would also be prohibited from permitting “discrimination or denial of educational benefits” because of a student or organization’s viewpoint.
In October, student government leaders at the University of Northern Iowa denied a student’s request to form a local chapter of Students for Life of America, a national nonprofit that opposes abortion, arguing that the group would create a hostile environment on campus.
University President Mark Nook eventually overturned the student government’s decision, though, citing students’ free speech rights.
“I hope that the recommendations that we have are well-received and actions are taken on them to prevent any further incidents,” Regent Leist said of the policies voted on at Wednesday’s meeting. “However, I do know, with our recommendations, (that) we will never completely eliminate freedom of expression issues — because, after all, we all have the right not to agree with each other.”
What are the full recommendations?
According to regents documents, the full recommendations are:
- Each syllabus will have a statement comparable to the ISU statement: Iowa State University supports and upholds the First Amendment protection of freedom of speech and the principle of academic freedom in order to foster a learning environment where open inquiry and the vigorous debate of a diversity of ideas are encouraged. Students will not be penalized for the content or viewpoints of their speech as long as student expression in a class context is germane to the subject matter of the class and conveyed in an appropriate manner.
- The syllabus free speech statement will be reviewed at the beginning of each course.
- Reaffirm that university resources will not be used for partisan activities. Registered student organizations and individual students will still be able to utilize university facilities and email.
- The universities may only take an institutional position on policy matters, in conjunction with the Board. This includes presidents, vice presidents, deans and department directors.
- Universities will not permit discrimination or denial of educational benefits because of the viewpoint of a student organization or a student.
- Establish the Free Speech Committee as a permanent committee of the Board of Regents to review free speech complaints passed along by the Executive Director, annually review all free speech policies of the Board and universities, review the university training for improvements and every two years do a survey on free speech to all faculty, staff and students.
- Universities will be required to post the Board’s and university policies and procedures on their webpage, including how to appeal to the Board regarding violations of free expression
- Universities will be charged with adding policies and procedures, including penalties for violations of free expression to its current process for violations of university or Board policies.
- The Board of Regents will review and compile data from the most recent campus climate surveys and national surveys regarding free speech. The Free Speech Committee will determine if additional survey of all members of each university regarding free speech is warranted during the fall semester 2021. Once completed this information will be presented to the Board.
- Universities will be required to provide training on the free speech to all students, faculty and staff on an annual basis. The presidents will appoint the appropriate campus members to assist the Free Speech Committee to develop a common module for free speech at all three universities.”
Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at ckrejci@press-citizen.com or on Twitter via @_CleoKrejci.
