In-Service Focuses on the First Amendment

Nasha Torrez, legal scholar and dean of students at the University of New Mexico, led EWU’s  ‘Understanding the First Amendment and Its Impact’ event.

On its surface, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a straightforward statement affirming certain fundamental rights; most famously, the right to free speech. But the real-world exercise of these rights — especially speech rights — can be highly fraught.

This is especially true on university campuses, said Nasha Torrez, a former civil rights attorney who is now dean of students at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. During an “in-service” training session for Eastern faculty and staff members on Oct. 1, Torrez guided her Nyseter Community Room audience through a detailed tutorial on the thicket of issues surrounding campus speech governance.

Think of speech protections and restrictions in terms of “a triangle and a square,” she said. The triangle represents laws at the federal, state and local level, with each descending tier enjoined by the one above it. The square, Torrez continued, is encompassed by the four classes of legal boundaries that directly affect campus speech. 

“So here are students in the middle,” she said, gesturing toward a “Free to Speak The First Amendment on Campus” PowerPoint slide. “They’re kind of boxed in — literally like a square. These are the federal laws that impact student rights on college campuses.”

 Torrez emphasized that none of this complex geometry need be in conflict with the central mission of public institutions like Eastern; i.e., providing a platform for the free exchange of ideas.

Unfortunately, communicating these ideas can sometimes lead to hurt feelings and worse, she explained, especially in an era when social media have robbed us of the face-to-face visual cues that once provided signs that our language might be hurtful. But unless speech acts fall under specific legal “carve outs” (among them defamation, blackmail, incitement to imminent lawless action, threats of violence and targeted harassment), upsetting communications are almost always protected. Notably, she added, “hate speech” is typically included in the “protected” category.

So the question becomes, Torrez continued, “How do we support people who feel impacted by speech that’s hateful or hurtful? How do we foster civility in how folks think about the ways their words impact others?” 

The answer, in part, involves listening, supporting and providing coping strategies for those affected. The most straightforward of such strategies, Torrez said, may be as simple as helping students learn to tune out the hate — sort of like choosing not to take an advertising flyer from “that guy” on a big-city street corner: “Just because they’re offering you a pamphlet doesn’t mean you have to take it, that you have to read it, that you have to engage. You are, in fact, free to just go about your day.”

Following her address, Torrez moderated a question-and-answer discussion with four Eastern staff members on the front-line of speech-related issues: Jewel Day, chief of EWU’s police department; Annika Saharosch, associate vice president for Civil Rights, Compliance and Enterprise Risk Management at EWU; Brandon Stallings, assistant attorney general for the state of Washington; and Colleen Vandenboom, director of EWU’s office of student rights and responsibilities.

Questions included queries about “free-speech zones,” pre-designated spaces for corralling  protests (usually deemed illegal by the courts, Eastern does not use them); potential police intervention following speech acts that students feel are hurtful or threatening (Eastern has a team of staff trained to reach out to affected students with support resources: University Police can take action only when legal red lines are crossed); and First Amendment protections for staff and faculty (it’s complicated, but typically speech that can be construed as work-related is subject to regulation).

***For more information on speech-related policies, procedures and protections at Eastern, visit these web pages from the Civil Rights & Compliance Office and EWU Student Affairs.