June 4, 2019
By Jonathan Butcher
Scott Morris says he
was always just “one
infuriated administrator away” from losing his job. Morris, advisor to the Flor-Ala, the University of North
Alabama’s (UNA) student newspaper, helped student journalists complete a
records request last year and found his infuriated college official.
As the Flor-Ala saga unfolds, Alabama lawmakers
have sent Gov. Kay Ivey a proposal
to protect free speech on campus that adds protections to the expressive rights
of students, faculty, and other college officials at UNA and other state
colleges.
The timing of the Flor-Ala events and the legislative
proposal is more coincidental that causational, though free-speech incidents
are so prevalent on campuses around the country that state lawmakers everywhere
should be considering ways to protect expressive activity on campus.
First, the proposal to
protect free expression: Alabama’s proposal follows the sound design of similar
protections adopted in North
Carolina, Arizona,
Georgia,
and by the University
of Wisconsin Board of Regents. In Alabama, public institutions must
consider sanctions for anyone in the campus community that violates someone
else’s expressive activity; abolish so-called “free-speech zones” that limit
speech to isolated areas of campus; and require university trustees to report
annually on free-speech incidents, to name a few provisions.
The Alabama proposal—like the proposals in Wisconsin, Arizona, and the other states listed above, which are inspired by the Goldwater Institute’s campus free-speech model legislation—allows individuals to protest on campus as long as they do not interfere with the expressive rights of someone else. Provisions such as these helped prevent a shoutdown at the University of Wisconsin in 2017, as demonstrating students told reporters they would conduct a protest outside of a lecture hall but not disrupt the event because they could face suspension or expulsion under the university board of regents’ policy.
Alabama’s provisions do
not take effect until next year, giving opponents
one more legislative session to try to derail the proposal. The proposal passed
with bipartisan support, but video footage shows one member shouting at the
bill sponsor, Rep. Matt Fridy (R-73), outside of a meeting room. The member had
to be physically separated from Rep. Fridy.
Second, returning to
the Flor-Ala episode: Morris and the
student reporters at UNA say they were within their rights to request and
ultimately report on a university professor’s (thereby a state employee, in
this instance) personnel record. Students accused the professor of sexual
misconduct under Title IX, and he was
eventually fired. The paper criticized the University for withholding documents
and cited
an opinion by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and related case law that they say allow for public access. The University
says it was trying to protect the employee’s privacy.
After the student
newspaper’s coverage of the Title IX-related accusations, officials changed the
requirements for Morris’s position, making him ineligible for the job of
newspaper advisor as of the end of the Spring 2019 semester.
The College
Media Association and local
media support the student newspaper. Flor-Ala
printed an issue with a blank front page saying “Without a free press… this is
what the paper would look like.”
The new free-speech
proposal could make more officials aware of events such as these. Under the
proposal, Alabama public university boards of trustees must produce an annual
report for their schools that describes how administrators deal with free-speech-related
incidents and “any assessments, criticism, commendations, or recommendations
the board of trustees sees fit to include.” The Flor-Ala episode would be natural to include. The annual report would
be publicly available and provided to the state commission on higher education
and the governor’s office.
In Arizona
and North
Carolina, state university governing boards have already issued annual
reports under the free-speech proposals adopted there.
No one can guarantee
that additional exposure of free-speech incidents will change administrators’
behavior, but the Alabama proposal commits state universities to “free, robust,
and uninhibited debate and deliberation by students” and includes enforcement
mechanisms. Gov. Ivey’s signature on the proposal would give families,
taxpayers, and lawmakers a set of policies to hold university officials to this
commitment.
Jonathan
Butcher is a Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute.
