Yellow Light School

Grinnell College

Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application. Read more here.

Public or Private: Private
Federal Circuit: Eighth Circuit
Head of Institution: President Raynard S Kington
Grinnell College
Office of the President
1121 Park Street
Grinnell, IA 50112
641-269-3000
kington@grinnell.edu
Website: http://www.grinnell.edu

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Do you have any information, updates, or changes regarding the policies at this institution? Let us know!

On this page, FIRE has excerpted policies that address speech and expression. You may download the full policy in .pdf form, below.

Restrictions on Expressive Rights

Harassment Policies (Learn More)

Green light: Student Handbook: Sexual Misconduct 12-13

Sexual harassment: ... Any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual nature will constitute sexual harassment when such conduct substantially interferes with an individual’s living or studying conditions or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for that individual.
View full policy (PDF, 2130 KB).

Green light: Student Handbook: Campus Life Policies- Harassment 12-13

Harassment is conduct that has the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment for a student, interfering with the academic performance or extracurricular activity of a student or the work performance of a faculty or staff member. Complaints under this category may include:

1. Conduct that threatens the health or safety of a person or persons at the College
2. Conduct that damages or threatens to damage property of the College or property owned by person or persons at the College
3. Conduct that substantially interferes or threatens to substantially interfere with a person's or persons' right of access to educational programs or extracurricular activities offered by the College.
View full policy (PDF, 2130 KB).

Internet Usage Policies

Yellow light: Information Technology Services: Academic Computer Use Policies 12-13

Grinnell College supports the free expression and exchange of ideas and opinions and hopes that users of its computer systems will actively explore the possibilities of electronic publication on the World Wide Web. The College encourages students, faculty, and staff to develop and publish WWW pages through its servers (www.grinnell.edu, www.lib.grin.edu, web.grinnell.edu, and www.math.grin.edu).

Exercising one's right to free speech in an academic community, however, also entails some responsibilities that authors should be aware of:

It is improper and inappropriate to use the College's World Wide Web servers purposely to annoy, abuse, libel, threaten, or harass anyone, individually or collectively, or to violate state or federal laws.
View full policy (PDF, 268 KB).

Policies on Bias and Hate Speech

Yellow light: Student Handbook: Hate Crimes and Bias-Motivated Incidents Policy 12-13

Campus Safety and Security takes reports of incidents, conducts investigations of alleged college regulation
violations or crimes, maintains records of incidents for reporting requirements and forwards incident
reports to the City of Grinnell Police Department when appropriate.
[A] bias-motivated incident ... is an expression of hostility against a person, group, or property thereof because of such person’s (or group’s) identifying or perceived race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender, gender identity or
expression, and/or sexual orientation.
View full policy (PDF, 2130 KB).

Advertised Commitments to Free Expression

Green light policy: About Grinnell: Mission Statement 12-13

When Grinnell College framed its charter in the Iowa Territory of the United States in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for the different professions and for the honorable discharge of the duties of life." The College pursues that mission by educating young men and women in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.
View full policy (PDF, 49 KB).

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The speech codes and policies above were last fully checked via internet and other research means by FIRE in January 2014. According to FIRE’s research the substantive policies are current at least until this date. Directory information, including the name of the president of the college or university, may have been updated more recently. If any policy has been revised, or if you believe that we are in error, please contact us.