The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison voted Monday night to substantially narrow a speech code that specifies punishments for professors who make offensive remarks in the classroom. The change that was approved makes it impossible for a professor to be punished for statements that are "germane to the instructional setting."
The code has been hotly debated on the campus since a committee of 17 faculty members, administrators, and students split last spring over how far to go in revising the code. Madison was in the forefront among campuses when it first adopted the code 18 years ago. The original code made no mention of academic freedom and would have punished professors for classroom remarks that "demeaned" a student or group of students based on gender, race, cultural background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or handicap. The earlier code allowed students to determine what might be considered "demeaning."
The code the Faculty Senate enacted last night says that "all expression germane to the instructional setting -- including but not limited to information, the presentation or advocacy of ideas, assignment of course materials, and teaching techniques -- is protected from disciplinary action." The statement was approved by a vote of 71 to 62.
It means that even if students are offended by what a professor says, the professor cannot be punished as long as he or she can show that the words were relevant to a lesson. Professors who direct racial slurs and other epithets at a student that are not germane to a class presentation or discussion, however, can be punished by the university.
Madison has long had a reputation as a place where political correctness flourished, partly because of the university's willingness to adopt policies that restrict speech. In addition to the faculty code, the campus was among the first to develop a "hate speech" code in the late 1980s, prohibiting students from making derogatory remarks. A federal judge struck down that policy as unconstitutional in 1991.
Although Madison's faculty speech code has never formally been used to punish a professor, some faculty members and students said the specter of the code was a threat to academic freedom. The code's very existence, they claimed, limited what professors felt comfortable saying in the classroom.
It was those professors and students who pushed the narrower code that was approved last night. "This is clearly the repeal of punitive policies for classroom speech," said Jason M. Shepard, who is president of the senior class and a member of Madison's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Campus Center. "The faculty today gave a ringing endorsement to academic freedom and our historic commitment to free speech."
Mr. Shepard sat on the 17-member panel appointed by the university nearly two years ago to look into revising the code. The panel ended up divided in its recommendations. A majority wanted to punish professors for saying things that "derogate or debase" a student or group of students, unless the professor could show "reasonable pedagogical justification" for using the words. The majority also wanted to punish a professor who could have used other words or teaching techniques that would have been less offensive to students.
A minority on the 17-member-panel wanted to punish a professor only if it could be proved that he or she had purposefully "derogated and debased" a student. It was the members of the minority, including Mr. Shepard, who backed the policy that the Faculty Senate approved last night.
Even the faculty members who pushed for a narrower speech code were surprised by Monday night's action. "This is further than anybody thought we could go," said Donald A. Downs, a professor of political science who helped craft the changes.
But professors who think the Faculty Senate went too far said the new language may have the opposite effect of what Mr. Downs and others desire. Now, they said, classroom remarks that stray from the point of a discussion are open to punishment. That might include harmless banter between a faculty member and students.
"Anything that is not germane is potentially actionable," said Charles L. Cohen, a professor of history and director of religious studies at Madison. "In a funny way, they may have gotten what they wanted, but it may prove not to be what they wanted at all."
Copyright © 1999 by The Chronicle of Higher Education