On June 16th the California State Assembly voted 67-6 to pass a bill to protect high school and college newspaper advisors from being fired, suspended, or in any way punished for protecting a student’s right to free speech. Originally intended solely to protect journalism professors and newspaper advisors, the bill was expanded to cover all faculty defending student free speech. In response, the University of California Board of Regents issued a letter to Senator Leland Yee, the bill’s sponsor, refusing to formally adopt the bill’s provisions as they are required to by law. UC claims the bill will disrupt the academic environment and restrict the university’s ability to discipline faculty members who do not follow university standards. The bill was proposed in response to a number of recent cases in California where advisors were either demoted or fired. The bill would further act as a follow-up to a 2006 bill protecting student speech from censorship based on content and prohibiting administrations from exercising prior restraint in censoring student press or speech – a bill that according to Senator Yee can easily be undermined if universities are able to fire advisors who defend students and replace them with employees who don’t.

More from the Student Press Law Center
More from Inside Higher Ed
Read the Journalism Teacher Protection Act
More from the Association of California School Administrators
Read the UC lobbyist’s statement (PDF)
Read this NSNS post about a student advisor in Oregon getting fired for protecting students’ free speech