Middle Tennessee State University earns top rating for free speech

MURFREESBORO, Tenn., July 12, 2024 — Middle Tennessee State University is the latest school to earn a “green light” rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Only 68 colleges and universities nationwide receive this rating, which is reserved for institutions with no written policies that seriously imperil student free speech rights. 

“In my more than two decades leading this institution, it has always been a top priority for this campus to maintain a welcoming environment to the free expression of ideas as an essential component of what it means to be a successful scholar, an engaged citizen and a well-rounded human being,” said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. “I’m pleased that the university, under the guidance of our Free Speech Center and Director Ken Paulson, has been able to work with FIRE on these relatively minor updates to our speech guidelines to ensure our students have the speech protections they deserve and to achieve this green light rating.”

MTSU has had a unique commitment to the First Amendment for nearly 40 years. The university is home to the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, which promotes awareness of the First Amendment and quality journalism in Tennessee, and the Free Speech Center, a leading online resource that attracts 5.4 million users per year. The Free Speech Center houses the First Amendment Encyclopedia, a widely used collection of about 1,700 articles on First Amendment topics, court cases, and history, as well as many other educational initiatives. (Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center, is also a member of FIRE’s Legal Advisory Council.)

In addition to these on-campus initiatives, in 2018 the board of trustees adopted the “Chicago Statement,” a robust articulation of an institution’s commitment to free speech. Universities that adopt the policy promise not to “shield individuals from free speech, including ideas and opinions they find offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed.”

Despite these outward commitments, MTSU still maintained several vague policies that earned the institution a “yellow light” rating from FIRE. But over the past several years, MTSU made policy changes progressing toward an overall green light rating. This spring, the university completed the process by revising policies governing violence on campus, emails, and the use of amplified sound. 

MTSU joins the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as the only other school in Tennessee to earn a green light rating.

“Improving MTSU’s speech policies did not take heavy lifting,” Paulson said. “It was done by tweaking fewer than a half-dozen phrases without changing the university’s original intent.” 

The tweaks may seem minor, but they have a big impact because the revised policies no longer pose a threat to student rights. The revised Violence on Campus policy balances freedom of expression with the obligation to prevent physical violence on campus. Under this policy, only speech that constitutes a true threat — defined as a statement where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals — is prohibited. 

MTSU also improved its amplified sound guidelines by deleting a provision that banned “offensive language,” which could have easily been abused to censor disfavored but protected expression on campus. And the revised Electronic Mail Acceptable Use policy clarifies that “annoying” emails are permitted, but harassment via email is not. 

“MTSU students are now free to express themselves through protest, demonstration, and other means under the school’s revised policies, which promise not to censor students based on what they say,” said FIRE Senior Program Officer Mary Griffin, who worked with MTSU on the revisions. “We are elated to see MTSU respect and protect students’ expressive rights while other schools are finding reasons to silence and hamper student speech.”

Universities may think that policy reform is an arduous process, but MTSU’s journey to an overall green light rating was anything but. FIRE urges all institutions — public and private — to work with our Policy Reform team to follow MTSU’s lead and earn an overall green light rating.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

FIRE regularly works with colleges and universities — free of charge — to revise their policies to ensure they meet First Amendment standards. Contact FIRE’s campus Policy Reform team today at speechcodes@thefire.org.

Founded in 1911 as one of three state normal schools for teacher training, Middle Tennessee State University is one of the oldest and largest undergraduate universities in the state of Tennessee. With a fall enrollment averaging more than 20,000 students for the past five years, MTSU remains committed to providing individualized service in an exciting and nurturing atmosphere where student success is the top priority. MTSU features eight undergraduate colleges and the College of Graduate Studies, and more than 300 programs and departments combined, including accounting, aerospace, concrete industry management, music and recording industry. Offering a wide variety of nationally recognized programs at the baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral levels, MTSU takes pride in educating the best and the brightest students from Tennessee and around the world. For more information, call 615-898-2300, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/ or www.mtsunews.com. Follow MTSU on Twitter @MTSUNews and like us on Facebook.

CONTACT: 

Jack Whitten, Media Relations Specialist, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org

Ken Paulson, Director, Free Speech Center, Middle Tennessee State University: 615-898-5829; Ken.Paulson@mtsu.edu