With political speakers frequently visiting Penn State’s University Park campus, students are increasingly curious about how these speakers are invited and what resources are available for those affected. In a recent interview, Assistant Vice President Danny Shaha shared insights into Penn State’s policies and resources related to free speech.
How does the university determine what constitutes as a controversial speaker?
“We [Penn State] have really moved away from the language of controversial speakers, because we recognize who is to say who is going to be controversial, and what is controversial to one community member may be very different to what is controversial to another. So, what we focus on when we talk about speakers is we are thinking about questions like, is this speaker widely known? Is this going to elicit a lot of campus interest? Are there publicly devised or drastically different opinions of this speaker’s content? Campus speakers are wide range, but those that create a lot of campus interest.”
What is the expressive speech committee and what are the tasks that the committee does?
“The expressive speech committee sort of evolved organically. It was created in response to some speakers who came to campus and caused some campus controversy. We [Penn State] had previously managed those situations and interacted with student organizations, but didn’t have a lot of proactive work planning for looking at policies and revising policies in preparation.”
“A couple of years ago, another assistant vice president and I got together and said ‘Hey we should probably bring a group together regularly to talk about these issues’ and so we did. It’s a group that I chair, but it’s a group comprised of student affairs folks, management, Brian Patchcoski, AVP, university police, strategic communications and larger event folks from the university. It is a cross-functional team. We meet weekly, at least a half hour each week during the school year, monthly over the summer. The tasks the committee does is to prepare for, manage and respond to incidents related to free speech and expressive speech. Incidents can be bulletin posting policies, how can we work with our faculty and staff in preparing and training them in these areas? How are we engaging with a group that brings a speaker, what campus policies are in play, what police presence is going to be needed, how are we supporting minority and marginalized groups and who is going to be impacted by the rhetoric, and how do we respond? It is really the A-Z in expressive speech, and we learned that expressive speech can not just be responding to incidents, it has to be all of the above. Looking into policies and how are we applying them. This is why you have seen a lot free speech dialogue, and there is a road show that I do with university police and strat comm, as well as general counsel, where we probably get around fifty different faculty, staff and student groups each semester. Dr. Bendapudi’s video and the road show, all of that has been a result of the work of the free speech committee.”
“We are identifying what information needs to get out there and then again working with groups, especially with many of our affinity and identity spaces, with what spaces are we creating for folks to think about how speech impacts them and to support their community.”
How do these speakers come to campus? What criteria is used to approve or deny requests for guest speakers on campus?
“The range is broad in defining what a campus speaker is. However a campus speaker is often a speaker who is sponsored by a recognized student organization. Recognized student organizations can host speakers on campus. There are policies in student leadership and involvement that they have to adhere to and certain timelines. We [Penn State] can make certain decisions on what location is appropriate for this speaker, including spaces depending on the size. If they think they are going to have fifty people, then it does not make sense for them to host in Eisenhower. We are out there having those conversations, what is the makeup of this event? Is it a debate? Is it a panel? That may identify other needs. Is it a really large event that will create a lot of campus interest, so then we are thinking of security and how the speech is going to occur while making it safe.”
“Some facilities are better suited for large events than others, which is why you see some events move to the Bryce Jordan Center because it is an event-made space. We want to allow this event to be successful, so then an event-made space oftentimes is better than a classroom space that is not made for that, where we are not able to ensure appropriate ingress and need-risk. If they require funding, they go to the fee board, where they can request that. The fee board is a part of the arm of the university, they also have to make viewpoints in content-neutral decisions and they allocate money that is appropriate with their policies.”.
What is the range of protected speech and unprotected speech?
“That is in a few categories, most speech is protected. As long as free speech doesn’t violate the law or policy, then it is protected speech. I will talk about the law first, there are a few categories of speech that are not protected. So speech that is child pornography, fighting words, direct threats of violence or harm and things like harassment, all of those are pretty high bars. Fighting words is a really high bar. Where we are more evaluating speech is direct threats of harm, someone cannot say that they will cause someone harm. That speech is not protected, as well as can not harass anyone, such as threatening you or limit your ability to work, study or participate in activities of the university, then that is not protected speech.”
“When Viewpoint hosted Charlie Kirk, a month or so on Old Main Lawn, we have a policy against amplified sound between certain hours of the day. They started using amplified sound, but we did not shut down the speech altogether, we just said ‘You can’t use amplified sound,’ so that is not protected because we have a content viewpoint policy in place. So short of that is what a lot of people refer to as hate speech and think that it is not protected, actually, most hate speech is protected, even if it is offensive or vulgar, unless it violates that law in some or policy, then hate speech is protected speech.”
What protocols does Penn State take to ensure the safety and well-being of all students when speakers come to campus? Is there a system for students to voice concerns about a speaker before or after an event is scheduled?
“A couple things, through the expressive speech committee, we have police a part of that. We are always looking into how to create the safest environment possible, and police take the lead on that. So when we know that their is a speaker coming to campus that is going to illicit a lot of campus response, large attendance, and a large populous of the university that is going to be concerned about their presence, the police evaluate that. Police and strategic communications are speaking with prior universities that this speaker may have been at, to evaluate how that went and what protocols were emplaced. Were there concerns, and looking at social media for any threats out there? Has this person had a history of threatening behavior, has there been a protesting history about this person, so we can prepare for that? Looking at some decisions we can make. Looking at time, place, and manner decisions about when and where speech occurs, as long as it content viewpoint neutral. We are looking at what is the most appropriate place for this, is it a facility like the Bryce Jordan Center or is it the classroom?”
“Students if they are concerned about a speaker coming, can always if they feel like it’s biased related or discriminatory, fill out a report bias and they can report to me directly also as the lead for expressive speech. We can respond to them, and they can report to student leadership and involvement. Ethics and compliance is somewhere that receives several concerns if people think it is unethical for Penn State to bring this speaker in. I would typically refer people to report bias because that is often what people are most concerned about biased rhetoric. Then what happens to the report bias network is they will communicate with the rest of us and we will make sure to follow up.”
How does the university respond to potential protests or counter-events? Are students allowed to organize counter-speeches or peaceful protests?
“We want students and community members to respond, of course lawfully and within policy, but in the way they find healthiest for them and most appropriate for them. We don’t dictate what it looks like. It can look like a student or their community organizing the protest and we want to support their ability to do that, and we can help them do that. We can educate them on what the policies are, so they don’t violate a policy unintentionally. We can share with them the appropriate implications for that if they’d like our help, we encourage folks to use their voice, if they’d like to use their voice. Also, if folks want to avoid events altogether, and that is healthy for them and their community to do that, then we want to encourage them to do that. If they want to plan an alternative event, and we can be helpful with that, then we want to do that. Students also have a voice, students also have free speech. So whatever that looks like for that in response to someone that they find offensive or controversial, then we want to support their ability to engage in the way that makes sense for them, again in the way that does not violate the law or policy.”
