By Nicarlyle Hanchard and Nikta Hosseini / The Jambar
In a time when free speech on college campuses has been questioned with legislation, Youngstown State University recently received a “yellow light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
According to the website FIRE has reviewed and ranked free speech policies on university campuses across the U.S., with a mission to uphold rights given by the first amendment for nearly 30 years. The organization grades universities with green, yellow and red light ratings to determine levels of censorship.
Also per the FIRE website, a yellow light rating means an institution has at least one policy that outrightly restricts or can be interpreted to restrict free speech.
Of YSU’s nine policies reviewed, three received green light ratings, and the following six received a yellow rating:
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The Student Code of Conduct: (D) Article III. Student conduct standards/prohibited conduct – Bullying and Harassment
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Acceptable Use of University Technology Resources – Internet usage policies
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University Housing & Residence Life Resident Handbook: Physical or verbal abuse – Harassment policies
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University Housing & Residence Life Resident Handbook: Care of Your Room – Posting and Distribution policies
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Student Organization Policies: Invitation of Off-Campus Speakers – Protest and Demonstration policies
- Student Organization Policies – Posting and Distribution policies
Ryan Ansloan, senior program council in the Policy Reform department at FIRE, said the policies are reviewed as posted on a university’s website and interpreted how students and faculty would understand them.
“A yellow light rating basically means that we find a written policy either clearly restricts a fairly narrow area of speech that is protected,” Ansloan said. “That might be a narrow sliver of the amount of speech that one can expect on a college campus, but if it’s clearly restricted, then that is subject to a yellow light
Ansloan also said words in the policies, such as “obscene” and “unethical,” are ambiguous and could be interpreted differently.
Tim Harrington, vice president of strategic communications and human resources at YSU, said FIRE reviews the policies’ wording in a way where the ambiguity may lead to future issues. Harrington said he disagrees with the ambiguity claim as he believes the university’s policies to be clear.
“I don’t necessarily agree with that, relative to our specific policies, because I think our policies are very clear. I believe Youngstown State has a very clear policy,” Harrington said. “We don’t have free-speech zones around campus or anything — our entire campus is a free-speech zone.”
With the approval of speakers for student organizations, Harrington said he does not remember YSU denying a speaker based on who they were nor their content. He said the concern for speakers is mostly logistics and safety — for both the speaker and the students. Even then, Harrington said a speaker has not been denied.
“We pretty much allow everybody to come on here, whether we agree with them or not … We want that because we think that evolves into critical thinking. We want the students to be able to sit there and go, ‘Hey, I see their point of view. I might not necessarily agree with it, but I’m glad I heard it’,” Harrington said.
Though not in agreement with the rating, Harrington said the university will consider the results when reviewing policies. He said he will look at the policies from other universities in the state to compare wording.
“We always want to update [policies]. We always want to make sure that we’re absolutely doing exactly what we’re supposed to be doing,” Harrington said. “To be honest with you, I’m going to look at Cleveland State [ University’s] policy, because they obviously received a higher rating, and I want to see how they did it and see, ‘Hey, maybe they got some great ideas’ because they’re a public university too here in Ohio and if they got a green light, I’d like to see how they did it.”
