Protesters condemn plan as ‘ attempt to control’ school messaging ,
A new University of Minnesota Board of Regents gathering was disrupted by student activists who claimed the proposal violated free speech.
The Board passed a decision on administrative speech, which stated that the president is the university’s principal spokesperson and that all remarks addressing common issues or interests are now prohibited.
The school may be required to make it clear that its members are speaking their own personal opinions and never agree with the university’s position when discussing matters of public concern.
Kids for a Democrat Society chanted and held signs urging people to” stop the attacks on free speech” at the end of Friday’s meeting.
In a video that was uploaded to Instagram after the meeting, the group also stated its location.
A member of the group stated in the movie that the Board of Regents reviewed a quality that would require it to obtain political approval for division statements within universities and prohibit statements related to “public concern” or “public interest.”
She described the proposal as a distinct “attempt to command messaging coming out of the university.”
No college president has the authority to determine what claims should be made public, she said, so it shouldn’t be said.
One of the governors, Robyn Gulley, likewise opposed the plan. During the conference, she said it was” to hazy” and failed to “differentiate between products, ministries and locations while trying to address a particular issue”, The Minnesota Daily reported.
” We may apply a knife, but we use a bulldozer”, she said.
Regent Douglas Huebsch also backed administrative independence, claiming that it is important because the college is not a political body.
The governors will vote on the plan at a “later meeting”, The Minnesota Daily reported.
Similar ideas have recently been accepted by a number of other institutions. Yale University, for instance, announced in October that school officials may “refrain from issuing remarks concerning matters of public, interpersonal, or social impact, except in unusual instances”, The College Fix originally reported.
In addition to adding an administrative neutrality policy, Dartmouth College just joined some Ivy League colleges.
Last month, the University of Southern California, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Texas System made similar disclosures.  ,
MORE: Institutional independence doesn’t go far enough, doctor argues
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