Bias response teams procedures

1. Bias response teams procedures • Hate/Discrimination can enhance punishment for prohibited conduct. • Fight speech with speech! • Respect View Point Protection//Protect Your Fora

2. Anti-Hate Acts & Bias Incident Policy (2016) at Beloit College “The aim of this policy is to provide a means by which students, faculty, and staff members who experience hate or bias (both defined below) may have their concerns heard and receive support, conflicts may be mediated, and, when called for, effective community responses forged. This policy recognizes that thought and expression in the context of, and in service to, our learning mission is protected, while offering a mechanism for responding to the hatred and bias that work against it. These freedoms necessarily entail a potential for encountering ideas and speech that one finds controversial and even objectionable, insulting, or offensive. Acts of hate and bias -- whether or not intended -- threaten to undermine individuals’ or groups’ engagement in the free exchange of ideas.  Providing clear means by which suspected hate acts and bias incidents can be reported aligns with Beloit College’s commitment to freedom of thought and expression as central to our academic freedom and to our teaching and learning mission.” https://www.beloit.edu/inclusive/bias/

3. Definitions from Beloit policy Hate Crimes: Beloit College will report to the police, and cooperate with them in investigating, any act constituting a hate crime, as defined by Wisconsin statute.  Those who commit hate crimes will also be subject to discipline by the college in accordance with the anti-hate acts policy outlined below. Hate Acts: At Beloit College a hate act involves (1) violence, threat of violence, actions that are likely to incite violence, or other acts violating college policy that are (2) directed at persons or groups who are marginalized because of their race, color, religion, sexual orientation, ability status, ethnicity/national origin, physical characteristics, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and/or any other legally protected classification, and (3) have the purpose or reasonably foreseeable effect of harassing, dehumanizing, or intimidating those persons or groups. Bias Incidents: A bias incident is a verbal, written, or physical act of intolerance or prejudice that does not involve violence or other conduct violating college policy, but which threatens, intimidates, or marginalizes individuals or groups because of their actual or perceived race, color, religion, sexual orientation, ability status, ethnicity/national origin, physical characteristics, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and/or any other legally protected classification and lacks a reasonable relationship to an educational, political, and/or artistic end. https://www.beloit.edu/inclusive/bias/

4. Will Tomer, National Civil Liberties Group Questions Beloit College Bias Incident Policy’s Ethics, Legality, The Round Table (Apr. 17, 2017).

5. Key Takeaways • Strong Protection of Content/Viewpoint • Play the First Amendment game well. • Use it or lose it! • Expect Litigation/Opposition • Who, What, When, Where Analysis

6. Key Takeaways Cont’d • Forum Analysis • Speech zones? • Internet “true threats?” • Academic Freedom—Institutions, Faculty, Students, Staff, Third Parties • “The Marketplace of Ideas” Safety, Educational Mission

7. REMEMBER: A Campus is a Speaker, too! • Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006) • Create the spaces you want/Not a focus on dealing with negative speech or speakers • Teach the First Amendment • Rights Imply Responsibility • Fight Speech with Speech

8. REMEMBER: A Campus is a Speaker, too! • Don’t Grace the Graceless • The Power of Silence and Listening • Deal with Black Bloc/Catfishing • Help students protect and defend their identities. • Respect the rule of law!

9. A Blueprint for Higher Ed to Improve the Marketplace of Ideas • Articulate new issues of public importance • Explore creative employment protections • Expand protections to include who needs them • Adapt to the evolution of new disciplines and the new higher education resources model • Fight for educational freedom • Reimagine governance—not all organizations operate on a subordination model • Acknowledge “chilling” effects • Resist being cast as “referees”