Current through all regulations passed and filed through March 18, 2024
This policy applies to Northwest state
community college students, student groups, faculty, staff, and employees.
Section 3345.0215 of the Revised Code
requires each public college in Ohio to enact a free speech policy in
accordance with specific definitions of terms (paragraph(A)), (paragraph (B)),
establish a complaint process (paragraph (C)), and report annually to the Ohio
department of higher education (ODHE). Section
3345.0215 of the Revised Code
amends section 3345.0212 of the Revised Code
enacted through the FORUM Act to incorporate the free speech policy required by
Senate Bill 135.
(A)
Definitions
(1)
"Constitutional time, place, and manner restrictions"
means restrictions on that time, place and manner of free speech that do not
violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I,
sections 3 and 11 of the Ohio Constitution that are reasonable, content- and
viewpoint-neutral, narrowly tailored to satisfy a significant institutional
interest, and leave open ample alternative channels for the communication of
the information or messages to its intended audience.
(2)
"Faculty" or
"faculty member" means any person, whether or not the person is compensated by
a state institution of higher education, and regardless of political
affiliation, who is tasked with providing scholarship, academic research, or
teaching. For purposes of this policy, the term "faculty" includes tenured and
non-tenured professors, adjunct professors, visiting professors, lecturers,
graduate student instructors, and those in comparable positions, however
titled. For purposes of this policy, the term "faculty" does not include
persons whose primary responsibilities are administrative or
managerial.
(3)
Free speech means speech, expression, or assemblies
protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article
I, Sections 3 and 11 of the Ohio Constitution, verbal, or written, including,
but not limited to, all forms of peaceful assembly, protests, demonstrations,
rallies, vigils, marches, public speaking, distribution of printed materials,
carrying signs, displays, or circulating petitions. Free speech does not
include the promotion, sale, or distribution of any product or
service.
(4)
"State institution of higher education" has the same
meaning as in section
3345.011 of the Revised
Code.
(5)
"Student" has the same meaning as in section
3345.0211 of the Revised Code,
except that "student" also includes "student group."
(6)
"Student group"
has the same meaning as in section
3345.0211 of the Revised
Code.
(B)
Northwest state community college believes that the
right of free expression is as necessary as the right of inquiry and that both
must be preserved as essential to the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge
and truth. Northwest state community college affirms the following
principles:
(1)
Students have a fundamental constitutional right to free
speech.
(2)
Northwest state community college is committed to
giving students broad latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, learn, and
discuss any issue, subject to paragraph (E) of this rule.
(3)
Northwest state
community college is committed to maintaining a campus as a marketplace of
ideas for all students and all faculty, staff, and employees 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
individual students and faculty, staff, and employees 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 Northwest state community
college to attempt to shield individuals from free speech, including ideas and
opinions they find offensive unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable,
conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed.
(6)
Although
Northwest state community college greatly values 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 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 campuses of Northwest state community college, 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, Northwest
state community college has a responsibility to promote a lively and fearless
freedom of debate and deliberation and protect that freedom.
(8)
Northwest state
community college shall be committed to providing an atmosphere that is most
conducive to speculation, experimentation, and creation by all students and all
faculty, staff, and employees, who shall always remain free to inquire, to
study and evaluate, and to gain new understanding.
(9)
The primary
responsibility of faculty is to engage an honest, courageous, and persistent
effort to search out and communicate the truth that lies in the areas of their
competence.
(C)
Complaints
Northwest state community college is
creating a process under which a student, student group, or faculty, staff, or
employee may submit a complaint about an alleged violation by an employee of
Northwest state community college for violations of the free speech policy,
including any violation which results in a penalty imposed on a student's grade
for an assignment or coursework that is unrelated to ordinary academic
standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical
concerns, and is instead based on the contents of student's free
speech.
Under the process, shall comply with
the Ohio department of higher education's defined complaint process standards.
Under the complaint process, Northwest state community college shall
investigate the alleged violation and conduct a fair and impartial hearing
regarding the alleged violation. If the hearing determines the Northwest state
community college's policy was violated, the board of trustees shall determine
a resolution to address the violation and prevent any further violation of the
state institution of higher education's policy.
Filing a complaint of an alleged
violation of this policy can be submitted to the vice president for academics
office or anonymously through an online reporting form:
https://FreeSpeechReportingForm
(D)
Section
3345.0215 of the Revised Code
(reporting requirement)
Northwest state community college
annually shall report to the chancellor, in a form and manner prescribed by the
chancellor, both of the following regarding complaints submitted in the
academic year under the process prescribed under paragraph (C) of this
policy:
(1)
The total number of submitted
complaints;
(2)
For each submitted complaint, a description of all of
the following:
(a)
Northwest state community college's investigation
regarding the complaint;
(b)
The outcome of the hearing conducted by Northwest state
community college regarding the complaint;
(c)
If the hearing
determines Northwest state community college's policy was violated, the
resolution determined by the board of trustees to address that
violation.
