From the Legal Department...

As Chair of the Task Force on Journalistic Integrity, I have spent a great deal of time working on issues related to The Recorder. Although I do not now speak for the Task Force, as its Chair, I would like to remind everyone that the Task Force spent several months last semester carefully considering what action the University could take in response to an offensive article published in The Recorder last February. Since The Recorder’s publication of more offensive material last Wednesday, I know there has been a great deal of discussion both on and off campus about what the University can and should do in response. Last spring, the Task Force concluded that since we are a public university the First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects most student speech in The Recorder from interference by the University. The United States Supreme Court has found that universities may not proscribe student speech even if it is gravely offensive to large numbers of people. I invite you to look at the Task Force’s Final Report and also at a memorandum prepared by the Task Force’s subcommittee on the First Amendment which spells out much of the law on the protections afforded by the First Amendment to college newspapers, including an explanation of the very limited categories of unprotected speech – defamation, obscenity and fighting words, sometimes referred to as hate speech. These documents may be found at the following links:
http://www.ccsu.edu/Taskforce/Journalistic%20Integrity%20Task%20Force%20Final%20Report%205%2018%202007.pdf
http://www.ccsu.edu/taskforce/firstamendment.htm
As you can see from the Final Report, the Task Force made a series of recommendations that were accepted by President Miller at the beginning of August:
http://www.ccsu.edu/TaskForce/PresidentsResponse.htm
As the president noted in his email last Friday, during the month of August he met with the vice presidents and is in the process of implementing many of the recommendations.

Carolyn A. Magnan, Esq.
Counsel to the President