By Tala Alsharif and Madison Fessler / Jambar Contributors
Freedom of speech has been a controversial topic on college campuses with conversations surrounding hate speech and what content should be allowed on university-monitored apps.
Zach Greenberg, a First Amendment attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, defines free speech as the ability to express oneself on a wide variety of issues.
“It’s not just our words, it’s our expression that includes the clothes we wear, the events we go to, the God we worship or not worship,” Greenberg said. “[It’s] truly a wide array of ways we can get a message across, the ability to speak our minds and say how we feel.”
FIRE is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending free speech nationwide.
According to the FIRE website, hate speech is protected under the First Amendment and cannot be legally punished by the government.
Greenburg said there are exceptions to this law.
“Under the First Amendment, hateful and offensive speech remains protected unless it rises to a level of unprotected speech, such as a true threat, discriminatory harassment, or obscenity,” Greenberg said.
True threats, as defined by Greenberg, is speech considered to be a serious intent to commit unlawful violence.
Discriminatory harassment is defined as speech with a course of conduct so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive, that it could prevent a student from obtaining their education.
Greenberg said the categories of which speech can be lawfully censored are narrow in order to protect the freedom of speech.
“These categories are the way they are because you want to protect the vast majority of speech out there that may be offensive or hateful,” Greenberg said. “You want to use more speech and more education, instead of punishment and violence to address the hate in our society.”
Youngstown State University President Bill Johnson said hate speech incites violence.
“That’s when it begins to cross the line, when you’re demonizing someone because of their beliefs,” Johnson said.
FIRE ranks schools’ free speech policies based on a green, yellow and red spotlight system.
Green light schools have clearly stated policies protecting student free speech, meanwhile red light schools have policies substantially disrupting students’ right to free speech.
YSU falls under the yellow spotlight.
Greenberg said the yellow light schools have policies that could suppress students’ free speech because of their policies’ vague wording and limitations of speech in certain areas.
“Students [might not] know what speech is allowed and what speech is not allowed and that may cause them to self-censor and that’s bad for free speech,” Greenberg said.
Johnson said he oversees the university’s policies and believes they protect students’ rights.
“Our policies reaffirm [freedom of speech for students] that’s not going to change,” Johnson said.
Every year, FIRE conducts a survey gauging students’ knowledge about their rights to free speech.
“It turns out many students do not know their rights. They’re not aware of the full extent of their rights under the First Amendment. They’re unaware about the protections for hateful speech and the prohibitions on shouting down speakers and engaging in true threats,” Greenberg said.
While hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, Greenberg said universities have an obligation to protect students’ rights, but also to protect students as a whole.
“If there’s an issue of students being threatened, being harassed or obviously physical conduct assaults, the university has to step in and address that to protect free speech. You can’t have a conversation with someone threatening you,” Greenberg said.
These protections also include university apps. Greenberg said these apps and discussions included in them are considered public forums.
“The legal doctrine essentially states that when the university of the government opens up this area for discussion it has to let it remain open. It can’t put restrictions based on the content or viewpoint,” Greenberg said.
Students who believe their rights of free speech have been violated can contact FIRE to submit a case.
