Over the last few years, universities have sought to address on-campus tensions by creating Bias Response Teams that investigate allegations of harassment and prejudice. But at many places, the teams’ responses have jeopardized free speech and academic freedom.
The University of Iowa was one of the schools considering adding a Bias Response Team, but after Heat Street wrote last summer about particularly egregious speech restrictions at the University of Northern Colorado, Iowa cancelled those plans. Bias Response Teams on other campuses had become “scolding panels,” one top Iowa administrator said, and “that’s not what we want. That accomplishes nothing.”
Now, after consulting with students, professors, and staff, the University of Iowa’s administrators are rolling out a “Campus Inclusion Team.” It won’t actually conduct investigations or punish students accused of acts of bias, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported. If an incident does likely violate university policy or the law, the Campus Inclusion Team will refer students to administrative offices or police.
The team itself will offer support to students who feel offended or targeted, and its members receive training in both the First Amendment and diversity issues.
“The result reflects the University of Iowa’s strong commitments to both free expression and an inclusive community,” said Christina Bohannan, who until recently was president of the university’s faculty senate. “We provide care and resources to those who have been hurt by another’s words or actions, but we do not investigate or punish speech unless it rises to the level of a university policy violation.”
The University of Iowa has struggled in the past to balance concerns about bias and concerns about free speech.
Students have repeatedly pressured administrators to create a Bias Response Team or some other sort of entity to address troubling incidents; in particular, in 2014, students were upset by a controversial piece of art, which sought to call attention to race-based violence, that resembled a KKK effigy.
In 2015, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education named the University of Iowa one of its top-10 “worst abusers of student and faculty free speech rights.”
“Our goal is to ensure that free speech and the exchange of ideas is valued and honored, while also understanding that along with that comes the risk for people to be hurt or offended,” said Lyn Redington, the dean of students, in the university’s announcement. “The Campus Inclusion Team will provide a centralized place where students can seek support and assistance if they encounter language or behavior that they deem offensive or hurtful.”
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Steamboat Institute and the Independent Women’s Forum.
