A “Bias Response Team” (BRT) at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) has targeted unpopular speech in a way that verges on the unconstitutional. The team follows a troubling pattern of similar teams on other campuses. During the 2014-2015 school year, there were a total of 44 bias-related incidents reported.
The university’s Bias Response Team, formed in 2014, is presented as an alternative to the “reactive” responses from the university about student complaints by The Greeley Tribune.
Reyna Anaya, who overseas the BRT as part of the Dean of Students Office, said “there was a need for sharing stories.”
One of its main functions is to allow students to report bias. A report can be filed by someone who wasn’t involved, and there is no time limit.
Detractors have been alarmed by the BRT’s effect on free speech, as students who don’t think the way the administration does can find themselves in trouble for constitutionally protected speech.
According to the BRT, with added emphasis, “Bias Related Behavior includes any verbal, nonverbal or written behavior toward an individual or group based upon actual or perceived identity characteristics including, but not limited to” 19 different categories:
The team also seeks to bring parties together and to educate the campus. The latter includes a poster campaign.
A few examples are provided by The Greeley Tribune, which Anaya considered participating in to be forms of activism.
One poster reads cautions the campus that “When you say ‘all lives matter’… You are dismissing the Black Lives Matter movement and the brutality impacting the black community.”
Someone wrote a racial epithet on the poster, which led Anaya to dismiss concerns:
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has led criticism of the BRT. Azhar Majeed, the director of policy reform at FIRE, noted how universities are punishing students for free speech and takes particular issue with the poster campaign.
Majeed also criticized how “policies policies go after things like offensive speech, demeaning speech — these broad terms go against the First Amendment.” And, “there’s no way that these broad policies can be enforced in a consistent and even way.”
The team also seeks to educate students by teaching them to “Be Engaged In Equity & Inclusive Excellence.” Students are told to ask themselves how they identify, and what “are my privileged identities,” which they can find out through a BuzzFeed quiz, as well as what “are my marginialized (or oppressed) identities?”
