(a) The governing body of every institution shall adopt a policy that affirms the following principles of free speech, which are the public policy of this state:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 49-7-2405

  • faculty: shall include tenured and non-tenured professors, adjunct professors, visiting professors, lecturers, graduate student instructors, and those in comparable positions, however titled. See Tennessee Code 49-7-2404
  • faculty member: means any person, whether or not the person is compensated by a public institution of higher education, and regardless of political affiliation, who is tasked with providing scholarship, academic research, or teaching. See Tennessee Code 49-7-2404
  • Free speech: means speech, expression, or assemblies protected by the First Amendment to the . See Tennessee Code 49-7-2404
  • Germane: On the subject of the pending bill or other business; a strict standard of relevance.
  • Institution: means an institution of public higher education in this state. See Tennessee Code 49-7-2404
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Student: means :
    (A) An individual currently enrolled in a course of study at the institution. See Tennessee Code 49-7-2404
(1) Students have a fundamental constitutional right to free speech;
(2) An institution shall be committed to giving students the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, learn, and discuss any issue, subject to § 49-7-2408;
(3) An institution shall be committed to maintaining a campus as a marketplace of ideas for all students and all faculty in which the free exchange of ideas is not to be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the institution’s community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed;
(4) It is for an institution’s individual students and faculty to make judgments about ideas for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress free speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose;
(5) It is not the proper role of an institution to attempt to shield individuals from free speech, including ideas and opinions they find offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed;
(6) Although an institution should greatly value civility and mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual respect shall never be used by an institution as a justification for closing off the discussion of ideas, however offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed those ideas may be to some students or faculty;
(7) Although all students and all faculty are free to state their own views about and contest the views expressed on campus, and to state their own views about and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on the institution’s campus, they may not substantially obstruct or otherwise substantially interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe. To this end, an institution has a responsibility to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation and protect that freedom;
(8) An institution shall be committed to providing an atmosphere that is most conducive to speculation, experimentation, and creation by all students and all faculty, who shall always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, and to gain new understanding;
(9) The primary responsibility of faculty is to engage an honest, courageous, and persistent effort to search out and communicate the truth that lies in the areas of their competence;
(10) Although faculty are free in the classroom to discuss subjects within areas of their competence, faculty shall be cautious in expressing personal views in the classroom and shall be careful not to introduce controversial matters that have no relationship to the subject taught, and especially matters in which they have no special competence or training and in which, therefore, faculty’s views cannot claim the authority accorded statements they make about subjects within areas of their competence; provided, that no faculty will face adverse employment action for classroom speech, unless it is not reasonably germane to the subject matter of the class as broadly construed, and comprises a substantial portion of classroom instruction;
(11) An institution shall maintain the generally accessible, open, outdoor areas of its campus as traditional public forums for free speech by students;
(12) An institution shall not restrict students’ free speech only to particular areas of the campus, sometimes known as “free speech zones” ;
(13) An institution shall not deny student activity fee funding to a student organization based on the viewpoints that the student organization advocates;
(14) An institution shall not establish permitting requirements that prohibit spontaneous outdoor assemblies or outdoor distribution of literature, although an institution may maintain a policy that grants members of the college or university community the right to reserve certain outdoor spaces in advance;
(15) An institution shall not charge students security fees based on the content of their speech, the content of the speech of guest speakers invited by students, or the anticipated reaction or opposition of listeners to speech;
(16) An institution shall allow all students and all faculty to invite guest speakers to campus to engage in free speech regardless of the views of guest speakers; and
(17) An institution shall not disinvite a speaker invited by a student, student organization, or faculty member because the speaker’s anticipated speech may be considered offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed by students, faculty, administrators, government officials, or members of the public.
(b) The policy adopted pursuant to subsection (a) shall be made available to students and faculty annually through one or more of the following methods:

(1) Published annually in the institution’s student handbook and faculty handbook, whether paper or electronic;
(2) Made available to students and faculty by way of a prominent notice on the institution’s internet site other than through the electronic publication of the policy in the student handbook and faculty handbook;
(3) Sent annually to students and employees to their institutionally-provided email address; or
(4) Addressed by the institution in orientation programs for new students and new faculty.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to grant students the right to disrupt previously scheduled or reserved activities occurring in a traditional public forum.
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