Haverford College adopted a restrictive speech code banning 'microaggressions' [VIDEO]

Haverford College just adopted an amendment to its Honor Code that would make acts of “microaggression,” as well as “[u]sing one’s political beliefs to justify disrespectful or discriminatory words” punishable. Because this amendment threatens to cast a chilling effect on speech, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has named it our Speech Code of the Month for July. 

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Haverford’s Honor Council, which administers the Code, is entirely student-run. The Council has the authority to convene trials before a jury, which may mandate “resolutions” for violations. Now, even if these resolutions aren’t formal punishments, being brought in front of a jury of your peers to defend your protected expression is punishment in itself. 

Haverford is a private college, but it promises its students the right to free inquiry “both in and out of the classroom.” If Haverford’s promises of free speech are to be relied upon, it cannot delegate power to students to police the protected speech of other students. Please join us in urging Haverford College to abandon this policy amendment.