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In hinting at the āexecutionā of āpersonnel policies,ā Collin College betrays its duty to vigorously defend professor who criticized Pence
Nearly watched Vice President Michael Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris square off in the vice presidential debate last week. Online, Americans of all political persuasions sounded off, continuing our nationās long tradition of arguing over national political affairs. And, of course, some of those Americans were faculty members, leading conservative media outlets to professorsā āprofaneā tweets about Pence.
That included a by Lora Burnett, a history professor at Collin College in Texas, who tweeted that the moderator needed to ātalk over Mike Pence until he shuts his little demon mouth upā and shared another professorās tweet referring to Pence as a āscumbag lying sonofabitch.ā
The moderator needs to talk over Mike Pence until he shuts his little demon mouth up.
ā L.D. Burnett (@LDBurnett)
Publicly, the college issued a condemning Burnettās tweets as āhateful, vile and ill-considered,ā and acknowledging that her tweets āmay be protectedā by freedom of expression. (The First Amendment places limitations on when a government actor, like a public university or college, can take action against an employee for their speech as a private citizen on matters of public concern ā a constitutional protection that shields faculty members of all political persuasions.) But the First Amendment does not require college leaders to remain silent about speech they find offensive or contrary to institutional values: Criticism is a form of āmore speech,ā not censorship.
In private, however, Collin College President Neil Matkin took a more ominous tone, writing in an email to faculty members that Burnettās tweets had attracted the attention of ācollege constituentsā and led to ācontacts from legislatorsā and members of the public, most calling for Burnettās termination. Matkin added that the āexecution of [the collegeās] personnel policies will not be played out in a public manner.ā While criticism doesnāt violate the First Amendment, courts have held that āintimating that some form of punishment or adverse regulatory action would followā .
The following day, Burnett was given an āEmployee Coaching Formā with āPerformance Feedbackā styled as āConstructive Feedback,ā reading in full:
This is to serve as acknowledgement that you are entitled to your views and may freely post these views on your personal social media.
This is also to clearly communicate that you are not to use Collin College systems or resources to engage in private or personal conversations. If you are contacted through your Collin.edu account, you are not to respond from the college email system. You should use your personal email account on any and all personal communications.
In addition, please refrain from copying what appears to be private or personal communications to others via their Collin.edu email accounts. The Collin.edu system is for professional communications and those related to the educational mission of the college.
Thatās not a model of clarity, and itās difficult to decipher what use the college is complaining about. The line between what is āpersonalā and what is āprofessionalā is not always clear. More importantly, Collin Collegeās own policy āincidental personal useā of technological resources. Itās hard to square that policy with the collegeās insistence that Burnett refrain from āany and all personal communicationsā via her college email address, particularly when the angry emails sheās receiving are unsolicited.
Moreover, that response falls far short of Collin Collegeās policies, which not only recognize that faculty members are entitled to be free from institutional censorship due to their speech as citizens but administrators to āuphold vigorously the principles of academic freedom and to protect the faculty from harassment, censorship, or interference from outside groups and individuals.ā Suggesting that Burnett might be disciplined and warning her against doing what college policy permits her to do is not the vigorous defense of freedom of expression faculty should expect from a public institution bound by the First Amendment.
As we explained in our letter to Collin Collegeās leadership yesterday, the First Amendment protects the rights of faculty members at public universities and colleges to comment on matters of public concern ā like a debate between two people who may soon be a heartbeat away from the presidency. That right doesnāt falter when others find those views āhateful, vile and ill-consideredā because the First Amendment does not exist to protect popular speech, and instead protects the right to ā.ā&²Ō²ś²õ±č;
FIRE defends the rights of students and faculty members ā no matter their views ā at public and private universities and colleges in the United States. If your rights are in jeopardy, get in touch with us: thefire.org/alarm.
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