Ohio Administrative Code
Title 3349 - Northeast Ohio Medical University
Chapter 3349-3 - Faculty Rules
Section 3349-3-202 - Free speech on campus
Universal Citation: OH Admin Code 3349-3-202
Current through all regulations passed and filed through March 18, 2024
(A) Purpose
The purpose of this rule is to establish a free speech rule on the NEOMED campus. Section 3345.0215 of the Revised Code requires each public university in Ohio to adopt a rule on campus free speech that is consistent with and adheres to the principles set forth within it.
(B) Scope
This rule applies to NEOMED students, student groups, and faculty, and is established to safeguard their ability to express and respond to disparate views.
(C) Rule statement
(1)
Students 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 (D) (10) 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
and all faculty 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 faculty 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 wrongheaded.
(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 and all faculty 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 and all faculty, who shall always remain free to inquire, to study and
to evaluate, and to gain new understanding.
(9)
The primary
responsibility of faculty is to engage in an honest, courageous, and persistent
effort to search out and communicate the truth and counter untruths that lie in
the areas of their competence.
(10)
This rule shall
not be construed to impair any right or activity, including speech, protest, or
assembly protected by the United States Constitution. The university may,
however, impose the following measures, which do not violate the first
amendment to the United States constitution or the Ohio Constitution, such
as:
(a)
Constitutional time, place, and manner
restrictions;
(b)
Reasonable and viewpoint-neutral restrictions in
nonpublic forums;
(c)
Restricting the use of NEOMED property to protect the
free speech rights of students and faculty and preserve the use of the property
for the advancement of the university's mission;
(d)
Prohibiting or
limiting speech, expression, or assemblies that are not protected by the first
amendment to the United States constitution or Ohio constitution;
or
(e)
Content restrictions that are reasonably related to a
legitimate pedagogical purpose, such as classroom rules enacted by
faculty.
(11)
Complaints regarding violations of this rule
(a)
A student,
student group, or faculty member may submit a complaint about an alleged
violation of this rule by an employee of the university.
(b)
Complaints
alleging a faculty member violated this rule should be submitted via email to
freespeech@neomed.edu.
(c)
The process for reviewing complaints, which shall
comply with standards adopted by the chancellor of the department of higher
education, will include an investigation of the alleged violation, and a fair
and impartial hearing.
(d)
If the hearing determines this rule was violated, the
university shall determine a resolution to address the violation and prevent
any further violation of this rule, which may include discipline of the
employee, up to and including termination of
employment.
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