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Running head: THE FIRST AMENDMENT ON CAMPUS

The First Amendment on Campus

Melissa Recht

Wright State University

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First Amendment on Campus

The First Amendment is a bedrock of American freedom. Protecting the freedom of speech

and the press, the right to establish and practice any religion, the right to assemble, and the right

to petition the government provides a foundation for many of the laws and regulations that allow

the American people to live, work, and pursue an education in a fair and democratic way. The

First Amendment is a living and breathing section of the Constitution, with court cases and

situations that test its limits still occurring with regularity. On a college campus, where many

competing interests and ideas collide, knowing and understanding the First Amendment is

crucial. Bird, Mackin & Schuster (2006) provide both an historical understanding and a guide for

dealing with current issues occurring on college campuses in their book, “The First Amendment

on Campus: A Handbook for College and University Administrators.”

Freedom of Speech and Civil Rights

The power and importance of a strong First Amendment do not diminish when a college

administrator must deal with the complexities of how the freedom of speech may affect students,

faculty, staff, and the university as a community. Sensitivity and awareness are keys to

confronting these issues when they arise. Bird, Mackin, & Schuster (2006) write that a college

campus is a hotbed of emotions, diverse viewpoints, and potential lawsuits on both sides of the

free speech debate (p. 3). Special attention must also be paid to the cases where freedom of

speech may tip over into a violation of a person’s civil rights. While racist and sexist speech is

protected under the First Amendment, if it becomes pervasive, harassing, and prevents a student

from obtaining their education, it can be considered a violation of the student’s civil rights (Bird,

Mackin & Schuster, p. 13). But the bar is set very high for this. According to the Office of Civil
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Rights, “Harassment, however, to be prohibited by the statues within the OCR’s jurisdiction,

must include something beyond the mere expression of views, words, symbols, or thoughts that

some person finds offensive” (p.13). This means that the First Amendment will usually protect

even the most inflammatory and harassing language. The OCR sets a standard that, in their

words, must find conduct to be “sufficiently serious to deny or limit a student’s ability to

participate in or benefit from the educational program” (p.13). The OCR adheres to the First

Amendment and colleges and universities must find ways to lessen and regulate harassing

language through their own codes of conduct. But even these codes can create what the courts

have called a “chilling effect” that can limit allowed free speech and that this chilling effect is

unconstitutional (p. 7). Colleges must be aware that their efforts to create a welcoming and

diverse environment can set them up for a lawsuit. Bird, Mackin, and Schuster (2006) detail the

balancing test the courts use to determine if

What, Who, When and Where?

Freedom of speech does have its limitations on a campus. Administrators need to be aware

of what is considered free speech, who in a campus community has a right to free speech, and

when and where is it appropriate. As discussed, most speech is covered under the First

Amendment, even when inflammatory or offensive. There are some situations when speech is

not covered by the First Amendment. Briefly, these include: defamation, obscenity, disruption of

the academic environment, true threat of violence, incitement to imminent lawless action,

fighting words, invasion of privacy, and extremely severe sexual or discriminatory harassment

(p.56). Each of these situations must be carefully examined, documented, and researched before

a college or university can restrict the speech. The restriction must consider the possibility of a

chilling effect and other potentially unconstitutional results.

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Administrators must also consider where and when the speech is occurring. Public

universities are required to have free speech zones. These include traditional public forums

(public streets, parks, sidewalks) and designated public forums (green spaces, gazebos, and other

open spaces for gathering, like Wright State’s quad). Other spaces on campus can be considered

limited forums for content-neutral purposes, like student group gatherings. Classrooms and

offices are spaces where free speech can be limited, because their purpose is defined for another

use. Administrators can make decisions about limiting public forums only in a very narrow way,

with extreme scrutiny (p.64).

Freedom of speech at a public university cannot be limited just to students and others in the

campus community. Visitors are also allowed to exercise their free speech rights in a public or

semi-public forum. University officials must make decisions about speakers and groups on a

content-neutral basis, even when this could mean inflammatory speakers or groups may visit

campus.

Subheading

Subheadings are formatted with italics and are aligned flush left.

Citations

Source material must be documented in the body of the paper by citing the authors and

dates of the sources. The full source citation will appear in the list of references that follows the

body of the paper. When the names of the authors of a source are part of the formal structure of

the sentence, the year of the publication appears in parenthesis following the identification of the

authors, for example, Smith (2001). When the authors of a source are not part of the formal
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structure of the sentence, both the authors and years of publication appear in parentheses,

separated by semicolons, for example (Smith and Jones, 2001; Anderson, Charles, & Johnson,

2003). When a source that has three, four, or five authors is cited, all authors are included the

first time the source is cited. When that source is cited again, the first author’s surname and “et

al.” are used. See the example in the following paragraph.

Use of this standard APA style “will result in a favorable impression on your instructor”

(Smith, 2001). This was affirmed again in 2003 by Professor Anderson (Anderson, Charles &

Johnson, 2003).

When a source that has two authors is cited, both authors are cited every time. If there are

six or more authors to be cited, use the first author’s surname and “et al.” the first and each

subsequent time it is cited. When a direct quotation is used, always include the author, year, and

page number as part of the citation. A quotation of fewer than 40 words should be enclosed in

double quotation marks and should be incorporated into the formal structure of the sentence. A

longer quote of 40 or more words should appear (without quotes) in block format with each line

indented five spaces from the left margin.1

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References

Anderson, Charles & Johnson (2003). The impressive psychology paper. Chicago: Lucerne

Publishing.

Smith, M. (2001). Writing a successful paper. The Trey Research Monthly, 53, 149-150.

Entries are organized alphabetically by surnames of first authors and are formatted with a

hanging indent. Most reference entries have three components:

1. Authors: Authors are listed in the same order as specified in the source, using surnames

and initials. Commas separate all authors. When there are seven or more authors, list

the first six and then use “et al.” for remaining authors. If no author is identified, the

title of the document begins the reference.

2. Year of Publication: In parenthesis following authors, with a period following the

closing parenthesis. If no publication date is identified, use “n.d.” in parenthesis

following the authors.

3. Source Reference: Includes title, journal, volume, pages (for journal article) or title, city

of publication, publisher (for book).

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Appendix

Each Appendix appears on its own page.

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Footnotes
1
Complete APA style formatting information may be found in the Publication Manual.
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Table 1

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Figure Captions

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