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Education Dive
Ed Dept probe into free speech at public college a warning sign
Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
Oct. 1, 2020
Dive Brief:
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating whether the free
speech practices of Binghamton University, a public institution in New
York, violate federal law and regulation.
The probe stems from incidents last year concerning conservative
student groups, in which protesters trashed tables displaying
promotional and political materials, and drowned out a speaker whom one
of the organizations invited to campus.
The White House has taken a special interest in campus free speech, and
civil liberties experts say institutions should expect similar
inquiries to emerge.
Dive Insight:
Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order tying
public and private colleges' federal research dollars to protecting
campus free expression. The administration issued a similar rule this
year meant to bolster religious freedom and free inquiry. Both measures
were criticized as being redundant to existing law and difficult to
enforce.
The probe of Binghamton is at least the third such the department has
opened into postsecondary institutions this year. It follows similar
ones into the University of California, Los Angeles, and Fordham
University, a New York private school.
Institutions should expect more department scrutiny when the religious
and free speech regulation takes effect, said Joe Cohn, legislative and
policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education,
a civil liberties watchdog in higher ed.
Right now, the department is taking "slam dunk" cases, meaning those
with clear free inquiry violations, Cohn said. Targeting "egregious"
censorship could serve the public well, he said, adding that the
department may lose goodwill if the investigations become partisan.
Binghamton spokesperson Ryan Yarosh wrote in an email that the
institution "will respond to the investigation accordingly," noting
that it is committed to free speech and it has met First Amendment
obligations and those within federal law.
The department's inquiry relates to episodes in November 2019 involving
the university's College Republicans chapter and Turning Point USA, a
conservative group unaffiliated with the campus.
The university said the two conservative groups didn't secure
permission to table outside its union, and refused to move when staff
members approached them. Some students, offended by a display the
university said featured "provocative" imagery that included guns, then
tore apart the display. Campus police eventually escorted the groups
away to maintain safety. It later suspended the College Republicans as
a student group for not seeking approval to table.
A few days later, the institution halted a lecture by controversial
economist Arthur Laffer, whom the College Republicans asked to speak
but some attendees shouted down.
The department said the university did little to maintain order at the
talk and questioned whether its actions were a result of "political
bias" and hostility against conservatives and aligned groups.
It said Binghamton may be misleading students and families about their
free speech policies. The agency has asked for records concerning the
incidents, as well as disciplinary actions the university may have
taken against students in connection to them.
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