Okla. will require college students to take free speech training, bars discrimination against religious groups

 Oklahoma has passed a law barring its public colleges and universities from discriminating against student organizations based on their viewpoints and will also require students to take a free speech training during their first year of enrollment.

Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 1725 into law last month after the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate approved it in a 40-7 vote and the Republican-controlled Oklahoma House of Representatives passed it in a 78-15 vote.

In both chambers, one Democrat joined Republicans in supporting the bill, while all opposition came from Democrats. The law is scheduled to take effect on July 1.

The legislation states that while “a public institution of higher education may charge a security fee to a student or student organization as part of an application for expressive activities that require a permit,” the fee “shall not be based on the content of the expressive activities, the content of the expression of an invited guest, or the anticipated reaction to the expressive activities of a student or student organization or the expression of an invited guest.”

“Imposition of a security fee shall be based on content- and viewpoint-neutral criteria including, but not limited to, the time or location of the event, the anticipated size of the event audience, and whether alcohol will be served," the law states.

"A public institution of higher education that charges a security fee pursuant to this paragraph shall publish on its website the criteria that will be used to assess a security fee."

The measure prohibits Oklahoma public colleges and universities from classifying students’ expression as harassment unless the expression “meets the definition of harassment” outlined in existing state law. State law defines harassment as “expression that is unwelcome, so severe, pervasive, and subjectively and objectively offensive that a student is effectively denied equal access to educational opportunities or benefits provided by the public institution of higher education.”

Additional provisions amend state law to require institutions of higher education to provide professors, adjunct professors, teaching assistants and other faculty with training to understand protections for student free speech, in addition to school administrators.

Colleges and universities will also have to submit a report to the governor and state Legislature detailing actions they have taken to ensure compliance with state law.

The Oklahoma Free Speech Committee, authorized under state law, will “develop a free speech training that shall include information on the expressive activities that are protected by the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution. All students at Oklahoma public colleges and universities, including graduate students, will be required to take the training during their first year of enrollment.

The training will inform students that outdoor areas of college campuses are forums for public expression; students have the right to “spontaneously and contemporaneously assemble and distribute literature”; attempts to disrupt or prevent people from participating in events are unconstitutional; counterprotests are permitted; and speech considered by some to be “hateful” is still protected by the First Amendment.

Oklahoma will require students to take free speech training | Politics