Speech that is merely “mean” will no longer be banned by one northwestern university following intense media scrutiny earlier this month.
At the beginning of December, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) highlighted the University of Montana Western’s (UMW) absurd speech code policy, which banned “mean, nasty or vindictive” speech. As I wrote at the time:
Of course, this raises the obvious question of who gets to decide what speech is considered “mean, nasty, or vindictive.” If I were to take a guess, based on how speech and other matters are disciplined at other universities, I’d have to say the person who decides is the person most offended, rather than a reasonable person.
Intent, in these situations, is never important to colleges and universities. One student may say something to another without any ill intent, yet the second student may take it the wrong way and consider it “mean” or “nasty.” The second student is wrong, but that doesn’t matter, all that matters is their feelings.
The original placement of the “Civility Standards” gave the impression that students could be punished — including expulsion — for saying something another student deemed “mean.” The original wording included a ban on “mean, nasty, or vindictive” speech in “spoken or printed or emailed words, facial expressions, or gestures.” That’s right, a student could be expelled for giving another student a “mean” look. – READ MORE