A judge in Wyoming recently ruled that the First Amendment protected a sign saying that a transgender student who identified as “female” actually “is a male.” But that was at a state university, which is bound by the First Amendment.
Private universities aren’t bound by the First Amendment, and can restrict the speech of students and faculty unless the college handbook gives them free-speech rights against the college.
So Long Island University, a private institution, is restricting the very sort of speech that a judge ruled was protected at the University of Wyoming. Campus Reform reports:
Senior faculty at Long Island University (LIU) sent the university’s American Club chapter a letter earlier this summer demanding that it submit a DEI action plan and attend LGBT training as consequences for declaring that men are not women on social media.
The letter, addressed to American Club President and Campus Reform Correspondent Matthew Cairo, was signed by Senior Associate Director of Student Affairs Samiah Bhutta and Director of LIU Promise Brendan Caputo.
“All American Club executive officers and 50% of the American club membership roster are required to attend and participate in a LGBTQIA+ training session hosted by an LIU Promise employee before January 1, 2024,” it states.
The letter also demands that the LIU American Club “Submit a diversity, equity, and inclusion action plan by September 1, 2023, that aligns with both the University’s co-curricular learning outcomes and the mission of the American Club.”
The DEI plan must “Demonstrate tangible ways in which the American Club will ensure an inclusive and respectful environment on all its platforms, including social media.”
Cairo told Campus Reform that the club continue to stand for truth despite being forced to draft a DEI action plan against their will in order to remain a recognized club on campus.
“We are not going to let the university bully us into censoring ourselves. My goal when starting this club was to empower students to stand up for what they believe in, even if it’s not the popular opinion on college campus,” he said.
Cairo also stated that the club has to be “strategic” in its methods of fighting back due to the fact that private colleges today have been given too much power over students’ individual rights.
“We do not agree with such plans, but we tried to draft our statements in a way that doesn’t compromise on our values,” he concluded.
It is unclear whether Long Island University’s student handbook allows it to do this.
Private colleges can be contractually bound by free-speech promises they make in college handbooks and collective bargaining agreements, as the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in overturning a private college’s discipline of a conservative professor for criticizing a lesbian graduate student, in McAdams v. Marquette University (2014).
In New York, there are occasionally similar rulings ordering colleges to live up to free-speech or due-process guarantees contained in student handbooks, such as McConnell v. LeMoyne College (2006).
