Controlling speech

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

In response to a Board of Regents mandate, UNLV is finalizing work on a policy dealing with potential hate crimes and “bias incidents” on campus. The university hopes to implement the policy by July.

As Charlotte Hsu reported in Saturday’s Las Vegas Sun, the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has expressed concern with the “final” draft making the rounds because its broad definition of bias would tread on the premise of free speech. The policy would outlaw speech “motivated, in whole or part, by bias” based on race, religion, sex, appearance or political affiliation, among other characteristics.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel of the ACLU of Nevada, said the policy would preclude speech protected by the U.S. Constitution, including statements against a race or a religious group.

“Are those statements necessarily designed to advance intellectual inquiry? Probably not,” Lichtenstein said. “Are they protected by the First Amendment? Absolutely.”

The intention behind the policy — preventing bias and hate crimes — is good, but the way it is written is troubling. This policy raises the specter of Big Brother, and it could be used to police speech.

Bryan Spangelo, a faculty senator and a former faculty senate chairman, said the policy is “ripe for abuse.”

The policy would encourage people to report potential bias to the campus police. If police fail to find evidence that a crime has been committed, they would turn the investigation over to campus administrators for a review of policy violations.

That would certainly chill academic freedom, not to mention the right to free speech. A professor would have to watch what he says and to whom he says it. A student disgruntled over a bad grade or a colleague who is jealous could use the process to put a professor through the wringer.

Clearly, we do not condone hate speech or the use of words to harass, bully or intimidate at the university, but we assume that between its own policies and state and federal laws, the university has adequate resources to crack down on such behavior without infringing on a constitutional right.