What if it is said in a ‘free speech’ zone?
Via Campus Reform:
Cornell University is encouraging students to file bias reports against classmates who display “negative reactions” to a school-sponsored “Safe Place.”
Flyers have been posted around campus promoting a project called “Safe Place,” which aims to “affirm LGBTQ identities and lives and promote an affirmative and supportive environment” by providing participating students with pins and cards that they can display stating that they don’t discriminate and “won’t tolerate discrimination” that they encounter.
While Cornell already has a nondiscrimination policy that covers sexual orientation, the flyer explains that Safe Place “goes beyond the university policies” by helping students to make a “public statement of one’s personal support and affirmation of LGBTQ members.”
Anticipating that some students might wonder how to respond “if someone discriminates against me because I support Safe Place,” the flyer offers assurances that “negative reactions tend to be very rare,” but encourages anyone who encounters such behavior to “report it…via a Bias Reporting Team member.”
According to the university’s bias reporting page, Cornell specifically defines bias as “an act of bigotry, harassment, or intimidation” that is based on an individual or group’s “actual or perceived aspect of diversity.”