Ohio Administrative Code › Title 3358:11 - Michael J. Owens Community College › Chapter 3358:11-3 - Student Policies › Section 3358:11-3-70 - Campus free speech policy

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A)
								Policy statement
			 and purpose. A state institution of higher education, Owens community college
			 affirms campus free speech as prescribed in sections
			 3345.021,
			 3345.0211,
			 3345.0212,
			 3345.0213, and3345.0215 of the Revised Code.
			 Specifically, this rule affirms the following principles, which are the public
			 policy of the state.
(1)
									Students and all members of the college have a
			 fundamental constitutional right to free speech.
(2)
									A state
			 institution of higher education shall be committed to giving students broad
			 latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, learn, and discuss any issue,
			 subject to paragraph (H) of this rule.
(3)
									A state
			 institution of higher education shall be committed to maintaining a campus as a
			 marketplace of ideas for all students, faculty and members of the college in
			 which the free exchange of ideas is not to be suppressed because the ideas put
			 forth are thought by some or even by most members of the institution's
			 community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable,
			 conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed.
(4)
									It is for a state
			 institution of higher education's individual students and all members of the
			 college to make judgments about ideas for themselves, and to act on those
			 judgments not by seeking to suppress free speech, but by openly and vigorously
			 contesting the ideas that they oppose.
(5)
									It is not the
			 proper role of a state institution of higher education to attempt to shield
			 individuals from free speech, including ideas and opinions they find offensive,
			 unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional,
			 radical, or wrong-headed.
(6)
									Although a state institution of higher education should
			 greatly value civility and mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual
			 respect shall never be used by an institution as a justification for closing
			 off the discussion of ideas, however offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent,
			 disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed
			 those ideas may be to some students or faculty.
(7)
									Although all
			 students, faculty and members of the college are free to state their own views
			 about and contest the views expressed on campus, and to state their own views
			 about and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on the campus
			 of a state institution of higher education, they may not substantially obstruct
			 or otherwise substantially interfere with the freedom of others to express
			 views they reject or even loathe. To this end, a state institution of higher
			 education has a responsibility to promote a lively and fearless freedom of
			 debate and deliberation and protect that freedom.
(8)
									A state
			 institution of higher education shall be committed to providing an atmosphere
			 that is most conducive to speculation, experimentation, and creation by all
			 students, faculty and members of the college, who shall always remain free to
			 inquire, to study and to evaluate, and to gain new understanding. For an
			 atmosphere that is respectful, civility and listening are
			 encouraged.
(9)
									The primary responsibility of faculty and members of
			 the college is to engage an honest, courageous, and persistent effort to search
			 out and communicate the truth that lies in the areas of their competence or
			 discipline.