UofA among 30 schools to change free speech policies

A legal effort Alliance Defending Freedom launched last year to change unconstitutional policies at America’s public universities and colleges has resulted in policy changes at 30 universities across the country, according to the most recent data compiled this week.

The ongoing effort seeks to change policies that violate the First-Amendment-protected freedoms of students at hundreds of public universities and colleges nationwide.

“Public universities should encourage, not censor, the free exchange of ideas,” said Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “This effort has given public universities and colleges the opportunity to respect the constitutionally protected freedoms of their students without any costly litigation. The objective has been to inform officials of how their policies conflict with the Constitution, as reinforced by numerous federal court rulings, so that the schools can make changes.”

“The success of this effort so far means we will continue pressing forward to help schools protect their students as well as help students who often end up the victims of unconstitutional policies,” Theriot added.

Among the problematic policies are various speech codes and zones that place unconstitutional restrictions on student speech, policies that force student clubs to accept voting members and officers that don’t agree with the clubs’ beliefs, and policies that allow non-religious student groups to use student activity fees but exclude religious student groups even though the students in those groups have contributed to the fees.

School State Policies Changed
University of Alabama AL Coerced Association
University of Alabama at Birmingham AL Coerced Association
University of South Alabama AL Speech Code
University of Alabama at Huntsville AL Speech Code/Coerced Association
University of Arizona AZ Speech Code
California Polytechnic State University-Pomona CA Student Fee Policy
University of California-Davis CA Equal Access to campus mail for student groups
University of California-Los Angeles CA Speech Code
University of California-Riverside CA Speech Code
University of California-San Diego CA Speech Code
University of California-Santa Barbara CA Speech Code
University of California-Santa Cruz CA Speech Code
University of California-Berkeley CA Speech Code
Nicholls State University LA Speech Code
University of Southern Maine ME Speech Code
University of Southern Mississippi MS Speech Code/Speech Zone/Coerced Association
Elizabeth City State University NC Speech Zone
East Carolina University NC Speech Code/Coerced Association
The College of New Jersey NJ Speech Code/Student Fee Policy
William Patterson University NJ Speech Code
Evergreen State College OR Speech Code
Cheney University of Pennsylvania PA Speech Code
Indiana University of Pennsylvania PA Speech Code
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania PA Speech Code
Lincoln University PA Speech Code
Virginia Tech VA Student Fee Policy
Arkansas Tech University AR Speech Code/Student Fee Policy
Georgia Southern University GA Speech Code
Eastern Kentucky University KY Speech Code
Eastern Washington University WA Speech Code
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