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POLICY TITLE: Carnegie Mellon University Policy on Free Speech and Assembly and Controversial Speakers
DATE OF ISSUANCE: This policy was originally adopted on March 3, 1988. The most recent revision was approved by the President's Council on May 13, 1997. It is issued in the Faculty Handbook and Student Handbook.
ACCOUNTABLE DEPARTMENT/UNIT: Student Affairs. Questions on policy content should be directed to Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs, x8-2075.
ABSTRACT: Distribution of printed material, petitions for signature, speeches and other similar activities are permitted outside university buildings. No actions that harm individuals, damage/deface property, block access to buildings, or disrupt classes are permitted.
Carnegie Mellon University, a private university chartered under the corporation laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, encourages freedom of speech, assembly and exchange of ideas. As a university sincerely espousing the philosophy of academic freedom, the university urges and supports its community's desires and efforts to pursue these rights. All persons may distribute printed material, offer petitions for signature, make speeches and conduct other similar activities outside university buildings.
The only limits on these activities, within the law, are the rights of the members of the university community and the maintenance of the normal functioning of the university. To ensure this, any protest or demonstration must be of an orderly nature so that no acts or credible threats of violence occur and the normal, orderly operation of the university is not impeded; the protest or demonstration shall not infringe upon the rights or privileges of individuals not in sympathy with it. No activities that harm individuals, damage or deface property, block access to university buildings or disrupt classes will be permitted. The enforcement of these restrictions will not depend in any way on any subject matter involved in a protest or demonstration.
If such activity on this campus were to occur that is not responsibly conducted and is therefore disruptive, the university will attempt to deal with the disruption by internal means if at all possible. If such activity becomes destructive of property or threatens life or limb, the university may have to request immediate assistance from law enforcement officials outside the university.
The following statement, abridged from a resolution by the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education and adopted by the university Board of Trustees, establishes the principle governing the right of the university to invite speakers to address the campus community.
If men and women are to value freedom, they must experience it. If they are to learn to choose wisely, they must know what the choices are; and they must learn in an environment where no idea is unthinkable and where no alternative is withheld from their consideration.
The assumptions of freedom are that men and women will more often than not choose wisely from among the alternatives available to them and that the range of alternatives and their implications can be known fully only if men and women can express their thoughts freely.
When, as they will, speakers from within or from outside the campus challenge the moral, spiritual, economic or political consensus of the community, people are uneasy, disturbed and at times outraged. In times of crisis, this is particularly true. But freedom of thought and freedom of expression cannot be influenced by circumstances. They exist only if they are inviolable. They are not matters of convenience but of necessity. This is a part of the price of freedom.
For their part, colleges and universities must hold vital the students' right to know. When so-called controversial speakers are invited to the campus by a recognized campus organization, they speak not because they have a right to be heard but because the students have a right to hear. It is the students' right to hear that the university must defend if it is to serve its high function in society.
Questions about this policy or its intent should be directed to: Michael Murphy, dean of student affairs, x8-2075.