University of Kentucky goes totalitarian

Adopts Soviet style policy

The University of Kentucky’s Bias Incident Response Team threatens to seriously chill freedom of speech for the university’s more than 30,000 students and faculty. Bias response teams like Kentucky’s are burgeoning on campuses around the country. As FIRE exclusively reported in 2017, hundreds of universities nationwide now maintain these Orwellian systems, which ask students to report — often anonymously — their neighbors, friends, and professors for any instances of biased speech and expression. Currently, of the 467 colleges and universities rated in FIRE’s Spotlight database, 153 of them — roughly one third of schools — have bias reporting policies, along with many other institutions nationwide. One such policy, at the University of Michigan, is currently the subject of a First Amendment challenge in federal court.

The University of Kentucky’s policy highlights the threats to free speech and freedom of conscience posed by these comprehensive campus systems.

First, the term “bias incident” is defined so broadly as to include large amounts of constitutionally protected speech. The University of Kentucky defines a bias incident as “[a]ny activity that intimidates, demeans, mocks, degrades, marginalizes, or threatens individuals or groups” based on a wide range of personal characteristics. Broadening the definition yet further, a bias incident can be “intentional or unintentional.”

With this definition, the university is encouraging students to report on one another, and on their professors, for saying virtually anything that offends anyone else. This burgeoning “if you hear something, say something” anti-bias campaign has serious implications for freedom of speech and conscience on campus.

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