Statement on Freedom of Speech
The Rights and Responsibilities of Speakers at UMass Amherst

General Statement

We recognize the need for all members of the University community—administrators, faculty, staff, and students—to reaffirm formally their profound commitment to freedom of speech and to clarify the implications of that commitment.  In this context, freedom of speech encompasses all forms of communication as well as the freedom to listen, watch, protest, or otherwise participate in such communication.  We believe it is our responsibility to espouse an atmosphere of free speech and free inquiry and to advocate for the timely discussion of a wide variety of issues.  We believe, further, that vital intellectual discourse is essential to democracy and to ensuring a just society.

• Believing speech to be false, deleterious, or in any other way odious cannot be cause for its suppression except for speech as specified under allowable exemptions below.
  
  
• Preventing speech from occurring by disruptive protest also constitutes an attack on freedom of speech.
  
  
• Ensuring the rights of free speech and expression for protestors is a concomitant responsibility for upholding First Amendment prescriptions while acknowledging allowable exemptions for:
  
  
• speech that poses a clear and present danger of serious harm;
  
  
• obscenity;
  
  
• some forms of libel;
  
  
• sexual exploitation and other abuses of children;
  
  
• fighting words or face-to-face insults that are likely to bring disputants to blows;
  
  
• time, place and manner.
  
  
• Abiding by all reasonable University regulations regarding the time, place, and manner of the speech is an expectation of the sponsoring organization.
  
  
• Protection of the rights of freedom of expression herein described refers to speech directed at an assembled audience or occurring at a public setting at the University.
  
  

The following guidelines address the most effective means of protecting the freedom of expression for members of the University community: students, faculty, staff, and administrators and their invited guests.

Guidelines

* It is the right of members of the University community (administrators, faculty, staff, students) and others invited by members of the University community to express their views and opinions at the University.

* It is the responsibility of the University, insofar as it is within its lawful authority to do so, to protect the right of any member of the University community or invited speaker to speak, and to protect the rights of those members of the University community who wish to hear and/or communicate with an invited speaker.

* It is the responsibility of the University to ensure the protection of the rights of protestors, taking care to avoid any undue interference unless the continuation of a speech is at risk.

* It is the responsibility of protestors to avoid abusing their rights of expression in order to harass or intimidate speakers in ways that unduly interfere with free expression or communication.

* It is the responsibility of the sponsoring organization to provide for the costs of the invited speaker event.

* It is the responsibility of the University to accept no stipulation by invited speakers that compromises the full freedom of expression allowed by the members of the University community.

* It is the responsibility of the University to insure access to public events.

* It is the responsibility of the University to provide for the security of members of the University community and invited speakers.

* It is the responsibility of the University through the sponsoring organization to encourage speakers to engage ideas with the members of the audience or to seek alternative means of addressing issues and concerns raised by the audience.

* It is the responsibility of the organizers of the event or University representative, in the event of any undue interference with freedom of expression or communication, to put such parties on notice that they are interfering unduly with such rights.  If the notified parties do not cease their undue interference, the organizers or University representative should proceed with those measures deemed necessary to stop it, which may include the physical removal of individuals from the area.  In the event of a disruption of free expression, the overarching goal of the organizers or University representative should be to reestablish with deliberate speed an atmosphere conducive to communication between speaker and audience and to respect fully the rights of all parties.

* It is the responsibility of all members of the University community to observe and facilitate these Guidelines.

Notes:

1. Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

2. Miller v. California (1973)

3. Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Company (1990), New York Times Company v. Sullivan (1964)

4. Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act

5. Chaplinsky v.  New Hampshire (1942)

6. Ward v. Rock Against Racism (1989), Rankin v. McPherson (1987), Rust v. Sullivan (1992), Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham (1969), Tipton v. University of Hawaii (1994)

7. In settings of classrooms the appropriate rights and responsibilities are governed by principles of academic freedom.  Further, this statement does not cover acts of physical violence, verbal harassment, or that directed at individuals in which there is no intent to communicate publicly or with a wider audience.

Permission was granted by the General Counsel of the University of Michigan on November 22, 1994 to borrow extensively from the phrases and ideas that constitute their “Statement on Freedom and Artistic Expression: The Rights and Obligations of Speakers, Performers, Audience Members, and Protestors at the University of Michigan,” Civil Liberties Board, July 1988.