The Chronicle: Penn State Revises Policies on Nondiscrimination and Intolerance
Pennsylvania State University has revised its policies on nondiscrimination and intolerance to clarify what constitutes harassment and protected speech on its campuses.
The changes come three months after the institution was sued in federal court over free-speech issues, but university officials said the changes were not prompted by the lawsuit.
A lawyer for the group that filed the suit, however, praised the university’s actions. “To their credit, they’ve shown that you can protect free speech at the same time you prohibit real harassment,” said David A. French, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal-advocacy group based in Arizona.
The group filed the suit in February on behalf of Alfred J. Fluehr, a junior and a political-science major at the University Park campus who alleges that Penn State’s policies amounted to a speech code and violated his First Amendment rights.
Mr. French said on Wednesday that the key changes were in the university’s definitions of harassment and intolerance. “Previously, a reasonable person would think that speech could be censored if it was subjectively offensive,” he said.
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