Professional Standards and the First Amendment in Higher Education: When Institutional Academic Freedom Collides with Student Speech Rights

Authors

Clay Calvert, University of Florida Levin College of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

This Article examines rising tensions between institutional academic freedom and the First Amendment speech rights of college students. Specifically, the friction addressed here occurs when universities enforce external professional standards on students within their curricula. Initially, Part I provides a primer on institutional academic freedom. Part II then contrasts the vastly deferential Hazelwood approach to professional-standards disputes embraced by the Eighth Circuit in Keefe with the somewhat more rigorous ones adopted by the Ninth Circuit in Oyama and Minnesota’s Supreme Court in Tatro.

Recommended Citation

Clay Calvert, Professional Standards and the First Amendment in Higher Education: When Institutional Academic Freedom Collides with Student Speech Rights, 91 St. John's L. Rev. (2017)