Campus Speech Module: Student Protest Then and Now

Introduce students to the history of student protest on campus and how activists throughout history laid the groundwork for today’s robust protections for student speech. By highlighting the role of university students in the Civil Rights Movement and in fighting McCarthy era censorship, this module is meant to empower students to be active participants in their university community.

Campus Speech Module: Limits to Free Speech

Teach incoming students about when speech crosses the line and loses First Amendment protection. This module focuses primarily on defining and providing examples of harassment, true threats, intimidation, and other unlawful conduct. With this knowledge, students can more accurately gauge when their speech, or their peers’ speech, may be impermissible or may result in violations of others’ rights.

Campus Speech Module: Campus Speakers and Counter Protests

When controversial speakers are brought to campus, students often have questions about why such speakers are allowed to have a platform and how to respond productively to speakers they disagree with. This module covers topics such as viewpoint neutrality in administrative decision-making, freedom of association for student groups, counter-protests, and other methods of dissent.

Campus Speech Module: Academic Freedom and Classroom Speech

The principles behind academic freedom are important for students to understand in any college classroom. This module covers the importance of academic freedom in higher education, the rights of faculty, and how students can handle disagreements with their professors. The module also lays out the framework for a faculty-led panel on academic freedom.

Ohio Senate Passes Campus Speech Bill Limiting Imposition of Security Fees

The Ohio State Senate passed a new bill on campus speech on January 28th that will prohibit free speech zones, and ban the imposition of security fees based on the controversial nature of the speaker’s expression. 

Columbia President Lee Bollinger Weighs In On The State of Campus Speech

Columbia University president and First Amendment scholar Lee Bollinger writes about the state of free speech on college campuses. Despite President Trump’s claim that an executive order was necessary to […]

Conservative Speaker Heckled at CUNY Law Raising Campus Speech Concerns

Recently CUNY Law students shouted down Professor Josh Blackman causing debate among First Amendment scholars. In our Spotlight on campus speech, "Lessons from Berkeley on Campus Free Speech" we discuss how U.S. campuses have been hotbeds of political and social debate since the colonial era. By the 1960s, rising civil unrest buoyed the Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley. As protests spread, universities and law enforcement cracked down leading to fatalities in separate incidents at Kent State University and Jackson State University. Today campus protests are once again eliciting an escalated police presence. Both public and private universities are struggling how to balance the free exchange of ideas, but public universities have a legal obligation to protect campus freedom of expression. What does this mean for students, campus free speech and speaker’s right to free speech when it is suppressed by the fear of disruption?

National First Amendment Summit: Experts on Campus Free Speech Controversies

Leading First Amendment scholars convened to discuss campus speech and how educators and administration can balance the tension between free speech protections and student protest at the National First Amendment Summit.