According to a report published Jan. 10, UNCW poses a serious risk to its students’ free speech. The Pope Foundation and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education sponsored the study, which said the wording of policies at UNCW are too vague, and therefore unconstitutional.

The report criticized all the public universities in the North Carolina system except Elizabeth City State University.

The report objected to phrasing in UNCW’s policy that prohibits “behavior of a biased or prejudiced nature related to one’s personal characteristics…”

The report asserted the phrasing was unconstitutionally broad and did not clarify between harassing actions and actions that are considered forms of expression. It did say the current phrasing was an improvement over how the policy previously read, which included the words “speech or behavior.”

FIRE’s Web site gave UNCW a “red light” rating, given to the highest possible threat to students’ First Amendment rights. On the Web site, FIRE also objected to an incident in 2001, where a professor’s e-mail account was opened and read after a student complained.

Samantha Harris, the program officer at FIRE, said in an e-mail interview, “FIRE has not handled any additional cases at UNC Wilmington since the 2001 case.” She added, “FIRE’s ratings (red light, yellow light, green light) are based solely on whether a university maintains written policies that infringe upon constitutionally protected speech. The ratings are not affected by specific incidents at a school.”

Universities are completely within their legal rights to try to prevent harassment of students,” said George Leef of the Pope Foundation. “But the Supreme Court said that for some conduct to count as harassment, it has to be a pattern of behavior that is pervasive and so offensive that it prevents the person from being able to get an education.”

UNCW does offer students use of free speech zones, which are areas of campus where policies involving student speech do not apply. Students who want to take advantage of these zones must reserve them ahead of time. The school employs the general government idea of reasonable “time, place, and manner” to keep disruptions to a minimum. For example, directly in front of a building’s entrance is not a free speech zone. However, the amphitheatre and the area in front of Randall Library are.

But both FIRE and the Pope Foundation said this is not enough. Both cited a case at UNC-Greensboro, where students held a demonstration outside of free speech zones. When the administration reacted to punish the students, they sued the school for violating their First Amendment rights. The case has not come to a final verdict yet but UNCG did drop charges against the students.

According to Leef, “The courts have found, no, you can’t do that. The entire university is to be a free speech zone and not just some little part of it.”

Both groups said UNCW needs to clarify the existing policy to resolve the problem. “What they need to do is make it clear that the prohibition is against conduct that amounts to harassment, or obviously worse,” Leef said.

Harris said of the change in wording, “This appears to deal with conduct and not speech. It is still somewhat ambiguous, however the university should clarify that the word ‘behavior’ includes only conduct and not any expressive activity that would be protected by the First Amendment.”