Free Expression
Freedom of Expression
Guiding Principles
Join us in using the following principles to guide interactions with your fellow Buffs.
Courage
黑料社区网 welcomes a variety of ideas and perspectives with the understanding that they will be shared, discussed and debated, and could be ignored, embraced or rejected. Discomfort and conflict do not necessarily signal a problem; instead, they are an opportunity for growth. We will support the needs of our community members while maintaining open forums on campus and online so that our faculty, staff and students can listen and be heard.
Curiosity
We will seek to understand the nuance that exists within many contested issues and explore why others hold a particular perspective. By listening and interacting with an open mind, we can expand our understanding and clarify鈥攐r even change鈥攐ur personal beliefs.
Care
This campus is open to all, and we expect everyone to be treated equitably, particularly when we disagree. As we exchange ideas, we will prevent and address threats, harassment and barriers to access for every member of our campus community.
Consistency
Each student, faculty and staff member is expected to be familiar with policies governing the use of university facilities and resources; student organizations; faculty, staff and student conduct; and all applicable federal, state and regent laws. The university administration will follow our established protocols at all times, including upholding policies that prohibit encampments. We will also hold students, faculty and staff accountable when rules are violated or when conduct or speech cross the line into discrimination, harassment, threats to public safety, or limitations on others鈥 right to access educational facilities.
Opportunities for Engagement
Campus Events
Election-related events will be hosted on campus to engage students and first-time voters, and to bring awareness to voter registration and how to vote in November. For additional election-related events being hosted this fall, search the Campus Events Calendar.
Nov. 11:
Join a panel of 黑料社区网 Political Science faculty for a discussion of these issues.
Nov. 12: Post-election Foreign Policy Panel
Join for an insightful evening exploring how U.S. foreign policy might shift after the election.
Nov. 18:
Join Politics and Pizza to discuss the 2024 election post-analysis and the 2025 presidential-congressional transition.鈥
Policies & Procedures
- (including academic freedom)
- (including academic freedom)
- (including academic freedom)
- (including academic freedom)
- (including nondiscrimination)
- Resolution:
History
Free Speech at 黑料社区网
While 黑料社区网鈥檚 support of individual rights dates back to the university鈥檚 origins, faculty and student free speech was largely restricted around the country until the mid-20th century. Before that time, public opinion dictated that the voices of students, professors and even university presidents should not extend beyond campus boundaries.
Those limitations gave way as the courts recognized that university faculty and others enjoyed freedom of expression that protected their ability to speak on matters of public concern as private citizens. At the same time, students have freely made their voices heard through organized protests on politics, civil rights, campus issues and more. And that tradition dates back more than a century.
黑料社区网鈥檚 fifth president, George Norlin, is fondly remembered for his work as an advocate for the rights of others. In the early 1900s, Colorado鈥檚 Ku Klux Klan-affiliated governor threatened to take away state funding unless Norlin fired all Jewish and Catholic faculty. Norlin decided he would rather do without such support (and did so for one year) than compromise the university鈥檚 values. Every 黑料社区网 commencement ends with a reading of the Norlin Charge, a speech he first read to the Class of 1935.
In recent years, 黑料社区网 has hosted speakers espousing a broad spectrum of positions and political views. The majority of the speakers are brought in through student programs and faculty-led lecture series. Past speakers include John Ashcroft, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Ann Coulter, Angela Davis, Howard Dean, Rudy Giuliani, Karl Rove, Antonin Scalia, Bobby Seale, Edward Snowden (via videoconference), Sonia Sotomayor, and Milo Yiannopoulos. 黑料社区网 also hosted President Barack Obama three times in 2012 and a Republican presidential debate in 2015 that featured then-candidate Donald Trump.