OSU settles suit with conservative free speech advocacy group

Apr. 25—Oklahoma State University reached a decisive settlement agreement with Speech First, a conservative free speech advocacy group last week.

The suit, Speech First v. Shrum et al., included examples of three anonymous students who feared that the expression of their views would be considered biased, harassing, unwarranted and intimidating.

OSU signed the settlement agreement April 15.

"In the interest of a swift and satisfactory resolution, Oklahoma State University and Speech First have reached an amicable settlement," OSU said in a statement released by the university.

Speech First sued Oklahoma State officials in January 2023 over rules it said "deter, suppress and punish speech" about political and social issues.

All three students — referred to in the suit as Student A, Student B and Student C — claimed to be politically conservative and to hold "beliefs that are unpopular, controversial and in the minority on campus."

Such beliefs included the opposition to affirmative action, abortion, transgender people, gay marriage, gay couples raising children and Black Lives Matter.

Under the settlement agreement, OSU officials agreed to policy changes on campus, which included ending and disbanding its Bias Response Team and its current harassment policy that the suit said "targets constitutionally protected speech."

The settlement also allowed Speech First to rewrite its own harassment policy to include the "Davis standard," which it considered an "important speech protection for students."

In addition, OSU agreed to change its computer policy that had previously forbidden students from sending emails about politics and to pay $18,000 in attorney's fees to Speech First.

"We are committed to protecting, promoting and facilitating free expression for all students, regardless of their views," OSU said. "OSU embraces its role as a marketplace of ideas, and we believe a robust public discourse is a contribution to the process of addressing society's most pressing challenges, which is our charge as a land-grant institution."

The January 2023 lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, claimed the university's harassment, computer and bias-incidents policies were overly broad and violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Speech First said the University's harassment policy "disciplines students who engage in speech that the University deems to be 'intimidat[ing],' 'verbal abuse,' or other conduct that is 'persistent, severe, or pervasive' and 'threatens or endangers the mental ... health' of another student."

Speech First said the students wanted to send politically-oriented emails, including campaign-related emails, to other students from their university email addresses. It is a violation to do so under OSU's Appropriate Use Policy.

"That regulation is a classic content-based restriction," Speech First said. "For example, the university's policy appears to allow a student to send an email that says 'support universal healthcare' but forbids the same student from sending an email that says 're-elect Will Joyce for Stillwater Mayor because he supports universal healthcare.'"

OSU defines "bias" as "a disproportionate weight in favor of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is close-minded, prejudicial, or unfair."

"Bias incidents," in turn, are formally defined as "actions committed against or directed toward a person or property that are motivated, in whole or in part, by a bias against a person or group of persons who possess common characteristics." Bias incidents can occur on or off campus, including on social media.

In February, the Tenth Circuit ruled in favor of Speech First against OSU.

This came after Speech First appealed its case against OSU to the Tenth Circuit following a dismissal by the District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma for "a lack of standing due to the fact that Speech First uses pseudonyms to identify its members rather than their legal names," Speech First said in a press release.

But Speech First said that legal names of the plaintiffs are usually kept out of court documents to protect students from "potential retaliation from their schools."

Speech First Director Cherise Trump said OSU's policies on its Bias Response Team, harassment policy and computer policy were "clearly designed to monitor, investigate and restrict student speech all together."

"The fact that students can't even express an opinion without worrying that another student can use one of these policies to report them shows us that the school's administrators have no interest in encouraging students to engage in the robust exchange of ideas nor in protecting students' rights," Trump said.