Protesting, postering, or planning a campus event? Your college’s policies might have just changed.

Back-to-school season means unpacking dorm rooms, finalizing course registration, and getting involved in campus activities. This year, it should also include reviewing the changes your college or university very likely made to their speech-related policies this summer. 

Colleges often update policies during the summer months when students are off campus. But after last year’s post-October 7 campus protests — during which administrators struggled to support protected protest over Israel/Palestine, and stop unprotected misconduct like vandalism — schools adopted extensive new restrictions on expressive activities. This summer, dozens of schools overhauled policies on everything from protests, to encampments, to postings, and more.

Some of these new policies are permissible, but many infringe on student rights. 

FIRE has been tracking this trend and has spotted red flags that students should watch out for as they return to campus.

The basics

Public universities (and private ones that promise free speech rights) can enforce reasonable restrictions on the time, place, and manner of expressive activities, but those restrictions must be content-neutral, narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels for communication.

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That means colleges can’t require students to seek out advance approval for all activities or require protesters to limit their activities to minuscule “free speech zones,” but they can restrict certain types of activities that are likely to cause disruption, like a protest involving hundreds of students or a march that closes down a street. Schools can also restrict activities that require prior coordination on the part of the institution, such as an event requiring sound amplification that needs to be cleared and set up with event staff. Colleges can also prohibit most encampments, protesting round-the-clock, or protests that block others’ movement around campus.

Not all protests are protected by the First Amendment. If you break the law or disregard a permissible speech policy, you aren’t protected. While engaging in civil disobedience, like refusing to move from an unlawful encampment, can be a powerful tool for social change, it requires acknowledging that you’ll likely face disciplinary or legal consequences.

Students unsure about the line between protected protest, civil disobedience, and outright misconduct can check out FIRE’s “Back to School: Free Speech Basics” resources or FIRE’s “Do’s and Don’ts of Campus Activism.”

Parsing new campus policies on activism, ‘anti-Semitism,’ and more

Following the swath of encampments that popped up on campuses nationwide last spring, many institutions adopted formal bans on overnight camping. 

These bans are likely permissible, since under most circumstances universities may adopt policies that restrict the use of amplified sound, overnight protests, and camping in the interest of limiting disruptions to campus functions and activities. However, it is worth looking into whether this aligns with past practice and if it’s going to be evenly enforced. Applying policies selectively based on viewpoint — for example, because you want to protest the war in the Middle East — violates the First Amendment.

Some new policies are narrower but appear to have similar, viewpoint discriminatory origins. 

At Brandeis, a new policy stipulates, “Space may only be reserved for authorized university activities and must be sponsored by a recognized student organization or academic or administrative unit.” This provision is particularly problematic given that the university derecognized one of its only pro-Palestinian groups last November. Meanwhile, the University of Louisville proposed a draft policy that would entirely ban chalking and yard signs as well as any materials seen as “vulgar” — a vague term that practically invites administrators to punish speech they dislike. 

Other policies are even more sweeping. Universities like Case Western now place greater restrictions on expressive activity, period. As Case Western students return this fall, they’ll have to comply with a three-day advance notice requirement for demonstrations with more than 20 students. This is a significant improvement from Case Western’s earlier draft policy requiring seven days’ notice for any demonstration and limiting protests to a tiny “free speech zone” comprising less than 1% of campus. But that’s a low bar. Administrators relented on this restrictive policy after FIRE and concerned community members objected, but the new policy remains far too strict for a school that promises students robust expressive rights. 

Meanwhile, some university systems have adopted explicitly viewpoint-based restrictions, such as in Texas. Although Gov. Greg Abbott's Executive Order 44 claims to combat anti-Semitism, the only thing it will effectively curb on campus is free speech.

As you return to school this fall, make sure to check whether your administration has proposed or passed similar policies.

Making policies clear

It’s reasonable for colleges to look back on the past year, perform a post-mortem, and review their policies to make sure they’re clear enough for students to follow. 

Colleges must also adopt policies that allow students opportunities to express themselves without shutting down particular avenues for protest or imposing overbroad restrictions on protected, nondisruptive speech. 

FIRE survey data shows students are unfamiliar with what is and isn’t allowed on their campus and how they can protest — and that’s a problem. 

Colleges should put policies in an easily accessible place on their website and teach students about them early and often, as the University of Virginia does.

Colleges must also adopt policies that allow students opportunities to express themselves without shutting down particular avenues for protest or imposing overbroad restrictions on protected, nondisruptive speech. And instead of adopting viewpoint-based restrictions on the content of protests and other forms of expression, colleges should evenhandedly enforce their existing policies on misconduct like harassment, true threats, incitement, and violence. 

Fortunately, schools can, and do, get this balance right. 

In its policy on “Spontaneous Expression,” The Georgia Institute of Technology “reserves the right to direct individuals and/or groups to another available area of campus,” and it underscores that “The Institute must not consider or impose restrictions based on the content or viewpoint of the expression when relocating or redirecting any expression.” Georgia Tech finds the sweet spot: protecting freedom of inquiry and expression while safeguarding academic operations and student safety. North Carolina State University, the University of Toledo, and the University of Arizona also offer model policies that meet institutional needs while ensuring student expression remains adequately protected.

If you have questions about your school’s new or existing policies, reach out to FIRE’s Policy Reform team at speechcodes@thefire.org, and we’ll make sure you get answers. And if your school adopted policies you’re concerned about, we’re here to help you push back. You can also check out our FAQ on protests and our political speech FAQ if you’re interested in activism this fall.