CU regents weigh new free speech policy amid campus anti-Semitism concerns
The proposed changes would more strictly regulate anonymous speech and expression on university-controlled websites.
One CU regent said that students and faculty shouldn’t be able to ‘use university resources, the university website, to disseminate hate.’
University of Colorado regent Mark VanDriel recently came under fire from CU students and faculty after proposing changes to the school’s freedom of expression policy. According to critics, the new rules may significantly hamper free speech and undermine academic freedom.
The proposed changes include expanding the authority of the free speech policy, which currently governs “speech that occurs on University of Colorado campuses,” to also cover “digital spaces controlled by the campuses,” according to Colorado Public Radio.
In a resolution sent to the CU regents, several members of the CU Law School’s Student Bar Association expressed concerns that the new limitations for online communication go too far.
“With this proposal in effect, we would not be able to write about the weather (implicates climate change — political and social concern) or our dissatisfaction with a class grading method (academic concern),” the resolution stated. “We would not be able to promote the beautiful venue of our next Barristers’ Ball (artistic concern).”
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The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado voiced similar concerns in a letter to the regents, stating that the proposed changes “raise grave constitutional concerns and will chill members of the CU community from speaking their minds and sharing their views.”
VanDriel said that he also wants CU to roll back its protections on anonymous speech, which students and faculty had used in the past as a vehicle for anti-Semitic expression.
“We should be willing to associate our names with our ideas. We should have contact information,” he said. “That’s not particular to any standard, that’s just core to what a university can be about.”
The proposed changes also include a new rule that would require CU students, faculty, and staff to “include a disclaimer clarifying that the work does not represent the opinion, belief, or position of the university” when expressing their ideas in digital spaces regulated by the school.
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VanDriel argued that faculty and students’ freedom of expression should not be construed to allow them to “use university resources, the university website, to disseminate hate.”
CU Regent Ilana Dubin-Spiegel expressed similar sentiments, saying that “using university resources to promote antisemitism is wrong. If the current policy allows that, the policy is wrong and needs to be changed. If the policy does not allow it and is violated, there need to be consequences.”
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Colorado and the American Civil Liberties Union for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.