By Alan-Michael Steele [1]
BELLEVILLE – With great power comes great responsibility, according to Spiderman’s Uncle Ben; and the same holds true when speaking at Loyalist College.
Loyalist College is working with other colleges across Ontario to develop a policy on freedom of expression for the campus.
Under Colleges Ontario [2], an advocacy organization representing 24 separate colleges in Ontario, a task force is creating a policy for protecting freedom of expression on college campuses. This follows a statement by the Ontario government that colleges must implement a policy for this by January, or face funding cuts.
Loyalist College president Ann Marie Vaughan said, “The important thing about freedom of expression in universities and colleges is this is the place where really that type of debate needs to take place.”File photo by Brendan Burke, QNet News
Loyalist College’s president, Ann Marie Vaughan, says the new policy won’t have a large impact on the day-to-day life for students on campus.
“I would hope that we are generally an open institution anyway,” Vaughan said. “This will set a principal or a standard to clearly state to the community that we are open to that freedom of expression.”
Vaughan said this policy isn’t just for students and will apply to everyone on campus, from faculty to student government to residence councils.
She also clarified that for faculty, this is different from their academic freedom, which is covered under their collective agreement.
Academic freedom is a similar principle which is defined by OPSEU [3], the Ontario college teachers’ union, as the idea that scholars have freedom to teach and communicate all ideas or facts, including those that political groups or authorities don’t like. [4]
Vaughan explained that the policy would be comprehensive in what kinds of speech are protected or prohibited, in order to protect the rights of those on campus. However, permitted speech should not be disruptive.
“It will provide parameters, that whatever it is it cannot interfere with normal operations of the college,” Vaughan said.
However, Vaughan was not able to say exactly what the limit would be yet.
“I haven’t seen a draft or the policy yet,” Vaughan said. She did clarify that hate speech or speech that infringes on the rights of others would not be permitted.
The policy is being based on the University of Chicago’s statement on principals of free expression [5].
“You look for best practice,” Vaughan said. “You usually start with looking at what other people have done on this initiative.”
The exact time of implementation isn’t certain yet, though Vaughan said that they are aiming to meet the January deadline that’s been put in place.