Unconstitutional Speech Restrictions On Hold

Update 9/13/11: According to the News-Gazette, the proposed policy was "put on hold" because of the concerns raised by FIRE and the AAUP.

Read a followup letter from FIRE and the AAUP commending the administration for putting the policy on hold and offering to help with future iterations.

Original story 9/11/11:

In a joint letter sent Friday to Robert Easter, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the AAUP and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education warned against a  proposed new electronic communications policy that would restrict student and faculty speech on campus.

If enacted, the policy, called the "Provisional Electronic Communications Policy Document," would establish a number of unconstitutional restrictions on campus speech.

AAUP president Cary Nelson is also a professor at UIUC, where the academic senate was scheduled to vote on the policy this Monday, September 12.

See the AAUP's 2004 Statement on Academic Freedom and Electronic Communications.