Bias Response Teams on university campuses

[BobStackFan4Life]

The article is about one at the University of North Colorado. I didn't even know these were a thing but the article mentions they're on at least 150 campuses.

University of Northern Colorado's handling of speech deemed offensive raises questions, concerns
From censuring students to censoring professors, officials at the University of Northern Colorado have spent the past year regulating speech on their campus in a way First Amendment advocates say should raise serious questions.

Two years ago, UNC administrators created the UNC Bias Response Team with the stated intention of responding to complaints of bias-motivated behavior.

During the 2015-16 academic year, UNC officials responded to dozens of complaints — most generated by students — regarding everything from professors’ in-class assignments to students’ strongly stated political opinions to cooking competitions that caused problems for students with eating disorders.

In the spring, UNC officials strongly denied violating the First Amendment by punishing students or others in the campus community for speech. They said then, and now, they simply seek to educate students about offensive rhetoric.

The intervening months, and 243 pages of documents paint a different picture.

Beyond educational conversations, Bias Response Team members have sought to “strengthen” a professor’s teaching by censoring what that professor can cover in class, and have advised another professor not to discuss some sensitive issues at all to avoid offending students.

Adam Steinbaugh, attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, tracks more than 150 Bias Response Teams around the country. Steinbaugh said it appears UNC administrators are asserting control over what professors teach.

“That should be alarming that an administrator is telling a professor, ‘Do not address this subject in your classes,’ ” Steinbaugh said.

It’s even more troubling, Steinbaugh said, that UNC actively encourages students to report on “…hostile or offensive classroom” environments, as the university does in large text on its Bias Response Team website.

In September, a professor brought up debate topics during a discussion of an Atlantic article titled “The Coddling of the American Mind.” The professor discussed arguments for and against specific topics, including transgender issues. A student filed a complaint, and UNC responded.

“I advised him not to revisit transgender issues in his classroom if possible to avoid the student’s expressed concerns,” a Bias Response Team member wrote.

The Atlantic article, which was co-written by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education CEO Greg Lukianoff, raised the specter of that type of response in classrooms across the country.

“Ironically, you had that article making that argument, and a professor used that to say, ‘Let’s talk about important subjects,’ and a student ran to an administrator,” Steinbaugh said.

Dean of Students Katrina Rodriguez, who is transitioning from a role overseeing the Bias Response Team to a new position as vice president for Campus Community and Climate at UNC, said there is room for improvement in the way the team handled some complaints.

“I would say that there are some aspects that we can revisit,” she said about discussions with professors. “There could have been perhaps another way to look at this.”

Steinbaugh also has concerns about UNC’s treatment of student speech issues. In August, the Bias Response Team at UNC investigated a student for displaying a Confederate flag in his dorm room. A UNC employee approached the student, and asked the student to move it so it wasn’t displayed so publicly (it was hanging in the student’s window).

Just because the student complied, doesn’t mean the student moved it voluntarily, Steinbaugh said.

“If you have someone that can write you up or subject you to a disciplinary process, that would raise substantial First Amendment concerns,” Steinbaugh said.

Rodriguez said UNC officials have no intention of trampling First Amendment rights. They simply want to educate students on the impact of their words, or in this case, symbols.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/news/22634478-113/university-of-northern-colorados-handling-of-speech-deemed
Some of the complaints the Bias Response Team responded to:

In early December, the Bias Response Team investigated a report of a group of students talking negatively about another student. One of the comments, according to the complaint, was “slut-shamey.” UNC attempted to start a dialogue, but could not get students to respond.

» In February, the Residence Hall Association put on a cooking competition as part of Eating Disorder Awareness Week. An unidentified person contacted the Bias Response Team, saying several people “felt triggered” because of the event, meaning the event caused them to recall previous traumatic events. Another memo said negative food rules around healthy and non-healthy foods, coupled with the competition aspect of the cooking competition is “highly triggering.” The Bias Response Team sought to educate the Residence Hall Association about the concerns.

» In October, a student reported an organization’s (name redacted) members were making sexist chants, including “I wish all ladies were birds in the sky, and I was a hunter and shoot them in the eye.” It’s unclear from the documentation that exists whether this situation had any resolution.

 

[ImTheCaptain]

ITT: BSF tells us we should be worried about bias

 

[BobStackFan4Life]

University Might Expel Student Who Criticized Black Lives Matter

The student, Joshua Nash, isn't sure exactly which comments got him into trouble—at a public university that is obligated to abide by the First Amendment, mind you—but suspects a Facebook post about Black Lives Matter might have done him in.

"Black Lives Matter is trash because they do not really care about black lives," Nash recalled writing on Facebook, according to The College Fix. "They simply care about making money and disrupting events for dead people." Someone reported the comment to Facebook, which removed it and suspended him for a month.

On Twitter, Nash describes himself as a gay conservative Christian who uses the pronouns "God, Overlord, and #DangerousFaggot," the latter being a reference to Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos. A Purdue administrator told Nash that describing himself in such a manner was "homopohobic," according to The Fix.

When asked who [Nash] thinks may have reported him, or why, he said, "No idea. I didn't think it was offensive."

Since receiving the summons, Nash said he asked the university for more details during a phone call. He alleges that, over the phone, a campus official said his social media comments could result in his expulsion. The College Fix could not immediately reach a campus official Friday to confirm or deny the claim.

Nash's mandatory meeting with Student Assistance Director Andrew Pettee was supposed to take place on July 19, but has been moved to August. Pettee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Purdue University Northwest is a public university: administrators don't get to punish students for speaking their minds, even if they really don't like what the students have to say. Whether or not Black Lives Matter is an effective or intellectually honest movement is an important public policy question deserving of healthy debate at a university campus. And it's hardly appropriate for administrators to tell a self-identified gay student not to use certain words to describe himself—on Twitter—because those words are offensive to somebody else.

As is obvious, the university has no right to demand a meeting with a student if the ultimate purpose is to intimidate that individual into choosing different words.

https://reason.com/blog/2016/07/11/university-might-expel-student-who-criti