U. of Michigan Settles With Free-Speech Group in Suit About Bias-Response Team

Creative Commons

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will do away with its bias-response team as part of a settlement with a nonprofit group that argued that the team stifled students’ free speech, MLive reports.

The settlement comes more than a year after Speech First, a campus-free-speech group based in Washington, D.C., sued the flagship campus on behalf of two anonymous students. In September, after a federal district-court judge ruled against the nonprofit, a federal appeals court vacated the decision, ruling that the bias-response team used the “implicit threat of punishment and intimidation to quell speech” on the campus.

Michigan was among hundreds of colleges and universities to establish bias-response teams in recent years as white-supremacist groups marched on campuses and incidents of hate speech and hate crimes became more common. Speech First reported that the team had investigated more than 150 cases of alleged “expressions of bias” found in posters, fliers, social media, whiteboards, verbal comments, and classroom behavior since April 2017.

For some campuses, the teams serve as little more than a reporting mechanism for students and a way for administrators to identify trends. Although Michigan’s response team lacked formal disciplinary power, Speech First argued that the response team acted “by way of implicit threat” of punishment to quell speech.

The teams have drawn fire for their potential to chill free speech. The University of Northern Colorado, for instance, disbanded its team in 2016 after a complaint resulted in an instructor’s being asked not to discuss sensitive issues, including transgender rights, in the classroom.

While the bias-response team was under scrutiny, Michigan replaced it with a “campus climate support” system that guides students to resources and organizations, rather than directly investigating complaints. That system, which began operating at the start of the 2019-20 academic year, will remain in place of a bias-response team.

Correction (10/30/2019, 10:12 a.m.): This article originally stated that the University of Michigan’s bias-response team was charged with taking complaints and punishing violators. The response team lacked formal disciplinary power, although Speech First argued the team acted “by way of implicit threat” of punishment. This article has been updated.

Lauren Fisher is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @lauren__fisher, or email her at lfisher@chronicle.com.