ACRL Legislative Update

Volume 6, Number 2
April 27, 2007

Oppose "Protection of Student Speech" in Higher Education Act

Summary: In mid April, the Free Exchange on Campus Coalition, of which ACRL is a member, sent a  letter to the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). This letter opposes language promoting a "protection of student speech" as part of the Higher Education Act (HEA). At the state level, there have been attempts to pass similar " academic bill of rights" legislation, which would actually limit intellectual freedom on campus. Now we hear this type of language may be inserted in federal legislation through the Senate version of HEA - which the HELP committee is currently drafting. We are concerned that if this language is included in the Senate version, it will be very hard to get it back out.

Issue for Academic Libraries: ALA and ACRL oppose any legislation or codification of language that undermines academic and intellectual freedom, chills free speech, and/or otherwise interferes with the academic community's well-established norms and values of scholarship and educational excellence. ALA passed, and ACRL endorsed, a  resolution at Midwinter 06 opposing the "academic bill of rights". (See more on Academic Freedom:  Academic Bill of Rights for additional background.)

Talking points:

  • Congress historically has not imposed federal control over the academic policies of colleges and universities, recognizing that such decisions are best left to the institutions themselves.
  • Colleges and universities have already developed sufficient policies and procedures to ensure the quality of education while guaranteeing the rights of students and faculty alike, including tenure and due process policies to protect academic freedom, statements of student rights and responsibilities, and student grievance procedures.
  • No matter how a "student bill of rights" is worded, it would set the terrible precedent of promoting federal standards for how colleges and universities make academic decisions and would stifle the open debate and free exchange of ideas between students and teachers so fundamental to higher education.

Recent Developments: The latest reports are that the Senate will mark-up HEA on Wednesday, May 2. Our understanding is that the bill will include Section 104 which is titled "Protection of Student Speech and Association" - the section based on student bill of rights language. The language in the section is extremely watered down. In one sense this is positive, however, because it is so watered down, it is hard to make Senators and their staff see that this provision is still a serious concern.

Action Needed: We ask that relevant constituents work now to get the language out of the Senate bill at this stage, while the Senate HELP Committee is still drafting HEA. If you are the constituent of a Senate HELP member (see list below):

  1. Call the office of your Senator and explain to staff there why you oppose this language in HEA. (Search by zip code to find contact information at http://www.capwiz.com/ala/home)
  2. Meet with your college/university government relations office and ask staff what your institution can do to voice opposition.
  3. Send a message about this to others on your campus and in your state asking them to take action.

US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Democrats by Rank

Edward Kennedy (MA)
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY)
Barack Obama (IL)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)

Republicans by Rank

Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Wayne Allard (CO)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)

TIP: Personalize Your Messages to Congress

Over half of Congressional staffers believe the form-emails they receive from constituents are sent without the constituents' knowledge. The report with this finding concludes that, "quality is more persuasive than quantity. Thoughtful, personalized constituent messages generally have more influence than a large number of identical form messages." (From " Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping With the Surge in Citizen Advocacy".)

We encourage all library advocates to tell the story of your library each and every time you communicate with your members of congress. Your goal is to help policy makers understand the connection between proposed polices and how they might impact real, live people in their districts.

Attend "Day on the Hill" as part of Annual Conference

Tuesday, June 22, 2007, is designated as " Day on the Hill." Join hundreds of your colleagues to show the value of libraries to the Members of Congress. The day includes displays, a hearing, visits to Senators and Representatives, and a reception. Two training and briefing sessions will be held on Monday, June 25. All these events are free but do require registration when you register for ALA Annual Conference. We want to be sure academic libraries are well represented so please attend.

This digital update is regularly issued as part of our ongoing efforts to make it easier for you to connect with ACRL’s advocacy efforts. Feel free to forward this message to appropriate electronic lists.

To Subscribe/Unsubsribe to ACRL’s Legislative Update, go to http://lists.ala.org/ and search for legupdate@ala.org

We want the ACRL Legislative Update to be helpful to you. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact ACRL Scholarly Communications-Government Relations Specialist Kara Malenfant at kmalenfant@ala.org.

Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries, 50 East Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611, www.ala.org/acrl.