A free society upholds a man's right to speak his conscience without fear of reprisal, no matter how heinous, offensive or patently false his opinion might seem. This respect for free speech comes not just from the realization that unpopular opinions often contain portions of truth, but also because the right to free expression is itself necessary for fostering a humane quality of life. Free speech is not a means to any end; it is an end in itself, without which no human being can live in dignity.
Our University, a public institution of learning that is morally and legally bound to the highest standard of free speech rights, holds policies that contradict the First Amendment of the Constitution and make it possible for administrators to discipline students and faculty for expressing their opinions. To make matters worse, the University has just refused requests to disclose records of how it has prosecuted victims of these repressive speech codes in the past.
The University's Discriminatory Harassment policy constitutes a clear-cut violation of First Amendment rights, as I have previously noted in my July 22 column, "No freedom of speech for students." It states that members of the University community can be punished for merely directing at another person a statement that "unreasonably interferes" with academic performance and is offensive for religious, political, sexual, ethnic or racial reasons, to name a few. It gives no explanation or standard for what constitutes "unreasonable interference," leaving students to be disciplined subjectively.
Luckily for us, the "Discriminatory Harassment" speech code goes on to list exemplary types of opinions that might warrant swift punishment. "Ridiculing one's religious beliefs," "telling persons they are too old to understand new technology," "directing racial or ethnic slurs at someone," and "persisting in requests for dates after being told they are unwelcome," all fit the category of what not to say at U.Va. A few lines later, when the policy informs us that speech criminals can be expelled from the University, it becomes apparent that the likes of Voltaire, Mark Twain, Malcolm X, James Carville, Bill O'Reilly and the Ladies' Man wouldn't last a day in the community of trust.
Not to be outdone, the University's Sexual Harassment policy contains its own uniquely repressive verbiage. It states that students and faculty should be investigated and punished for making any verbal or written remarks of a sexual nature that create an offensive learning environment. Reminiscing about dirty jokes you heard in third grade? Unacceptable. Discussing last night's episode of "Sex and the City?" Right out. If someone overhears you and is offended by your statements, you are guilty of sexual harassment -- the same crime that would be attributed to a professor who commands his female students to sleep with him or fail his course. You're at U.Va. now -- check your First Amendment protections at the door.
Of course we don't know who has been punished for what during the time that innocent students and faculty have been living at the mercy of the University's unconstitutional speech codes. All disciplinary proceedings here in the community of trust are kept strictly confidential -- for the protection of the students being prosecuted, naturally.
But I was curious to see who had been officially rebuked for making fun of a Republican lately, so I sent a letter to University Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Katie Graney. In the letter I asked if she could be so kind as to release some past case records involving individuals who had been prosecuted under the University's Discriminatory and Sexual Harassment policies. Names and personally identifying information could be redacted -- a fancy word for removed -- from the records, so that the guilty parties could still be "protected." This way the only thing anyone would find out would be the nature of the crimes and the punishments that the perpetrators had received.
Unfortunately for me, though, Graney seems so intent on protecting those U.Va. has punished for "speech crimes" that she refused my request. No doubt after consultation with University attorneys, she politely informed me that the records I seek are considered "education records" under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Furthermore, she wrote, "FERPA does not create an obligation to produce a redacted copy of an education record." She concluded that the documents, "even if they were found, would ultimately have to be withheld from disclosure because of federal law."
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act, however, does create an obligation for redacted records to be released. Because the FERPA does not explicitly forbid the release of redacted records, it seems like only a flimsy bit of bureaucratic technicality is keeping the University community from seeing if or how "speech crimes" have been punished at U.Va. in the recent past.
I have it on good authority and it seems to me through my dealings with her that Katie Graney is a good and competent person who is intent on fulfilling her duty as UJC chairwoman. Given the blatantly unconstitutional nature of the University's Discriminatory and Sexual Harassment policies, however, there can be no excuse for keeping the past application of these speech codes in the shadows. Even if there were not a legal obligation to reveal the University's actions in this matter, there certainly would still be a moral obligation. If the University is not ashamed of how it has handled the rights of its students, let the UJC show us the records. Because for now, hiding behind a federal statute of sketchy applicability only begs the question: What do they have to hide?
(Anthony Dick is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at adick@cavalierdaily.com.)
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