From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: Censorship of material on door
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Distribution: all
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 15:17:55 GMT

censtad@dumaine.gac.edu (Christopher B Enstad) writes:

[...]
>The Committee moved to send to our administration a letter protesting the  
>fact that some students have stuff on their living space doors that people  
>may find offensive.
[...]

In my opinion, it is censorship, but if GAC is a private school it is
also legal. I think your best argument is based on academic freedom
and contract law. For the contract law, look at your student code. The
student code of many schools says that students shall be free of
institutional censorship. Also, don't let them tell you censorship of
students is necessary to comply with federal sexual harassment rules.
It is not.

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)

=================
law/constraints.contractual
=================
* Universities -- Contractual Constraints

Comments from _A Practical Guide to Legal Issues Affecting College
Teachers_. Explains that University Code is part of the contract
between the student and school. The University can be liable for a
breach of the contract (i.e. for not following its own rules).

=================
academic/speech-codes.aaup
=================
* Speech Codes (AAUP)

On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes Expression - An
official statement of the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP)

It says in part: "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be
banned or forbidden.  No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful
or disturbing that it may not be expressed."

=================
academic/student.freedoms.aaup
=================
* Student Freedoms (AAUP)

Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students -- This is the main
U.S. statement on student academic freedom.

=================
faq/censorship-and-harassment
=================
* Censorship And Harassment
 
q: Must/should universities ban material that some find offensive
(from Netnews facilities, email, libraries, and student publications,
etc) in order to comply with antiharassment laws?
 
a: No. The federal courts have said that harassing speech is different
...

=================
law/doe-v-u-of-michigan
=================
* Expression -- Hate Speech -- Doe v. U of Michigan

This is Doe v. University of Michigan. In this widely referenced
decision, the district judge down struck the University's rules
against discriminatory harassment because the rules were found to be too
broad and too vague.

=================
law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
=================
* Expression -- Hate Speech -- UWM Post v. U Of Wisconsin

The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district
court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected
offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email.

It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a
remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with
the promise of the Bill of Rights.  The First Amendment is central to
our concept of freedom.  The God-given "unalienable rights" that the
infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be
preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed.

The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here
are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment.  But
freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only
restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the
fear of violent reaction.  Content-based prohibitions such as that in
the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the
screening which our Constitution demands."

=================
=================

If you have gopher, you can browse the CAF archive with the command
   gopher gopher.eff.org

These document(s) are also available by anonymous ftp (the preferred
method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp
to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):

  pub/academic/law/constraints.contractual
  pub/academic/academic/speech-codes.aaup
  pub/academic/academic/student.freedoms.aaup
  pub/academic/faq/censorship-and-harassment
  pub/academic/law/doe-v-u-of-michigan
  pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin

To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):

send acad-freedom/law constraints.contractual
send acad-freedom/academic speech-codes.aaup
send acad-freedom/academic student.freedoms.aaup
send acad-freedom/faq censorship-and-harassment
send acad-freedom/law doe-v-u-of-michigan
send acad-freedom/law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin


-- 
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign