SGA Senate Resolution “Campus Freedom”
A resolution protecting student and faculty first amendment rights
Authored by: Preston Bates, Students For Liberty
Sponsored by: Travis R. Gault, GSC
Background
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) was established in 1999 in order to
“...defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges and universities,” including "freedom of speech, legal equality,due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience--the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity.”[1] “FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at
America’s colleges and universities are, in theory, indispensable institutions in the development of critical minds and the furthering of individual rights, honest inquiry, and the core values of liberty, legal equality, and dignity. Instead, they often are the enemies of those qualities and pursuits, denying students and faculty their voices, their fundamental rights, and even their individual humanity. The university setting is where students are most subject to the assignment of group identity, to indoctrination of radical political orthodoxies, to legal inequality, to intrusion into private conscience, and to assaults upon the moral reality of individual rights and responsibilities. Illiberal university policies and practices must be exposed to public criticism and scrutiny so that the public is made aware of the violations of basic rights that occur every day on college campuses. In 1998, Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate co-authored The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses. In response, they received hundreds of communications and pleas for help from victims of illiberal policies and double standards that violated their rights and intruded upon their private consciences. To answer these calls for help and to transform the culture, Alan and Harvey founded FIRE.
FIRE effectively and decisively defends American liberties on behalf of thousands of students and faculty on our nation’s campuses. In case after case, FIRE brings about favorable resolutions for these individuals who continue to be challenged by those willing to deny fundamental rights and liberties within our institutions of higher education. In addition to individual case work, FIRE works nationally to inform the public about the fate of liberty on our campuses.”[2]
One of FIRE's chief initiatives is opposition to campus “speech codes,” which FIRE describes is “any university regulation or policy that prohibits expression that would be protected by the First Amendment in society at large."’[3]
FIRE has a blog, The Torch, and a comprehensive list of universities in the United States, called Spotlight. The site evaluates each university's various harassment and hate speech policies, as well as any ‘Advertised Commitments to Freedom of Speech’. Evaluating those policies and media reports, FIRE assigns each institution a color code: green (‘no serious threats to free speech’), yellow (‘some policies that could ban or excessively regulate protected speech’) or red ("at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech’).[4]
As of writing this resolution, not one school in Kentucky (including the private institution ranked) have
been granted “green lights.”[5] The specific policies from the University of Louisville that are in violation of first amendment rights, their corresponding green, yellow or red light status, and the justification therein is available at
Whereas,
The University of Louisville has been blemished with a “red light” due to egregious violations of student and faculty first amendment rights;
Whereas,
At the request of the Recognized Student Organization, Students For Liberty, the Foundation for
Individual Rights is generating a memorandum for the University of Louisville Administration outlining
a step-by-step process on how the university may become a “green light school.”
Whereas,
Upon becoming a “green light school,” the University of Louisville will become a regional hotbed for
potential students and faculty alike who value academic freedom and civil liberties.
Whereas,
The preamble of the SGA constitution states that SGA exists to:
●“to provide an effective organization for the administration of student affairs”
●“to provide official channels through which student opinions may be expressed”
●“to promote full cooperation among students, administration, faculty, and staff”
●“to improve student physical, social, and cultural welfare”;
Whereas,
The members and faculty adviser of Students For Liberty represent only a few of the other RSOs,
faculty members, students, administrators, and members of the community who want the University
of Louisville to be a champion for academic freedom and first amendment rights.
Therefore Be It Resolved:
The Student Government Association hereby recommends and requests the University of Louisville Administration to make the necessary changes to its policies so that our University is a regional champion of freedom.
1
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]