Following a two-year-long process, Syracuse University recently announced it will revise its free speech policies.

While experts welcomed the announcement, some expressed frustration about the amount of time it took for the university to deal with the issue.

In an email to the SU community, Chancellor Kent Syverud said earlier this month that the university will be modifying some of its free speech rules, including anti-harassment, computing and electronic communications, banners and signs display, along with when the university can shut down a protest.

Syverud’s announcement came in response to recommendations put forth last year by SU’s Working Group on Free Speech.

David Rubin, dean emeritus and professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications who chaired the working group, said he is not sure how much of the working group’s recommendations will be implemented or in what kind of form in the final version of the free speech policy.

He also said Syverud did not mention when offensive speech should be both tolerated and encouraged in his email to SU community.

“That’s at the heart of the problem and that wasn’t addressed by (Syverud),” Rubin said.

Rubin added that the issue of free speech should have been addressed a long time ago. He speculated that the reason for the delay is because the university has been preoccupied with other issues — such as diversity, inclusion and sexual assault — and the issue of freedom of speech on this campus was pushed down the ladder.

“At first I was frustrated, then I got annoyed, then I got angry and then I just gave up,” Rubin said. “So I am in kind of gave-up mode now.”

The process to change the policies began in 2014 as SU’s Student Association, Graduate Student Organization and Student Bar Association passed resolutions to change the Computer and Electronic Policy. Rubin said the existing policy is written such a way that indicates the university owns everything that passes through its system.

Roy Gutterman, an associate professor of communications law in Newhouse and First Amendment expert, said Syverud’s announcement shows the university’s commitment to free speech values.

Gutterman said the process itself should take time and consideration. He added that even though SU took years and it would have been better if the issue was addressed earlier, he is relieved and reassured to see the university recognized the issue as a priority.

The mere fact that the university is addressing the need for more open communication and more acceptance in protests and offensive speech is assuring, Gutterman said, given the history of free speech issues that have occurred on campus over the last 10 years.

In 2011, then-graduate student Matthew Werenczak was expelled from the School of Education for five months over a complaint that he posted on his personal Facebook page. The following year, a nonprofit advocating for free speech on college campuses, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, gave SU a “red light” because of the university’s computing and electronic communications policies. The organization still grades SU a red light in the same category, according to the organization’s website.

In addition, earlier this month an SU professor disinvited an Israeli filmmaker over fears of sparking political controversy on campus and being harassed by pro-Palestinian colleagues.

Zachary Greenberg, a legal fellow at the foundation, said the organization welcomes SU’s initiatives to change free speech policies. At the same time, he said he is unsure of whether the university is going to implement policies recommended by the working group.

“We hope that Chancellor Syverud is going to realize that these policies do infringe freedom of speech at Syracuse University and he is going to realize that he has a golden opportunity to revise these policies and protect free speech,” Greenberg said.

Published on September 20, 2016 at 8:17 pm

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