[lg policy] Linguistic Hygiene

Sat Dec 23 15:51:11 UTC 2017

 Free speech group calls out USU for 'civility policy'

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A watchdog organization that monitors campus free speech policies
nationwide has singled out Utah State University this month for one of the
school’s speech codes that dictates how students should interact with one
another, faculty and staff.

FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, announced in an
article
<https://www.thefire.org/speech-code-of-the-month-utah-state-university/>
on its website that USU’s “civility policy
<http://catalog.usu.edu/content.php?catoid=12&navoid=3174>” had earned the
organization’s “Speech Code of the Month” for December.

That code, found in USU’s online catalog for the 2017-18 school year,
states: “All interactions with faculty members, staff members, and other
students shall be conducted with courtesy, civility, decency, and a concern
for personal dignity.”

“On the surface, this might sound reasonable: what’s wrong with asking for
basic civility and respect?” wrote Samantha Harris, a vice president for
FIRE, in the article. “The problem here … is that Utah State is not asking,
they’re telling. And requiring people to speak only in ways that are civil
and courteous is a violation of their right to free speech.”

Matthew LaPlante, USU faculty for journalism and communication, agrees with
FIRE’s stance on this speech code.

“I’m not comfortable with policies that police speech, nor do I find them
particularly enforceable,” he wrote in an email. “Courtesy, civility,
decency, and a concern for personal dignity are matters of considerable
subjectivity, and our laws are not intended to be subjective.”

USU spokesman Tim Vitale was aware of FIRE’s recent article and said the
university is changing the wording of that particular conduct code.

“For the last, I’d say, six to eight months, we’ve been in the process of
comprehensive review of policies and procedures and that one word (shall)
is already changed in a draft I’ve seen,” Vitale said. “Something to the
effect of, ‘We encourage courtesy, civility, decency and concern for
personal dignity.’”

Informed in a Herald Journal interview that USU was changing the language
of the policy FIRE criticized, Harris called that a positive development.

“Changing that word from sort of a mandatory to an aspirational language
would alleviate FIRE’s concerns, because, of course, universities are free
to encourage students to be civil,” she said. “I mean, I think civility and
respect are values most people support; the issue is when you require all
speech to be civil and courteous, you infringe on students’ free speech
rights.”

Vitale emphasized USU has “always valued free speech rights of every
individual on campus.”

“We allow all members on our campus, unequivocally, their free speech
rights,” he said.

Vitale further defended USU’s student conduct code by pointing to the
students’ rights section of that same policy.

“These are all very explicit and clear ways in which we champion free
speech rights of everyone,” Vitale said.

The USU spokesman believes while there’s a place for FIRE to express its
views on USU’s speech policies, the university has a right to defend them.

“If they’re championing free speech rights, more power to them; so are we,”
he said. “Explicitly and poignantly, we are champions of free speech rights
of everyone.”

Although LaPlante agreed with FIRE’s criticism of USU’s civility code, he
believes the school “does an exemplary job” of creating space for free
speech and educating the campus community on how to use that space.

FIRE’s December article on USU speech policy is not the first time the
watchdog group has called out USU. It did so in a 2014 article
<https://www.thefire.org/threats-violence-lead-feminist-critic-cancel-speech-utah-state/>,
right after feminist Anita Sarkeesian cancelled her speech at USU on the
grounds that the university would allow concealed firearms at the event,
citing Utah law. Sarkeesian, an outspoken critic of misogyny in video
gaming, had received death threats over her planned appearance at USU.

Renewed scrutiny by FIRE of USU’s conduct codes comes at the end of a year
in which officials from colleges and universities across the country took a
hard look
<https://news.hjnews.com/logan_hj/protecting-speech-usu-campuses-nationwide-re-examine-rights-safety-academics/article_9d14ac1c-ee7b-578e-8ca6-1699a321fcef.html>
at free speech on campus in light of white supremacists marching over the
summer at University of Virginia.

At the beginning of the current school year, USU President Noelle Cockett
called for a free speech panel discussion
<https://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/where-s-the-line-usu-panel-talks-campus-free-speech/article_72dbbe79-8ee6-5cd2-8c8d-5c4cae8c8cca.html>
and noted the school had reviewed its free speech codes to make potential
changes

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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