Amendments	Fiscal Memos
HA0281	Amendment 1-0 to HB0538

	Amendments	Fiscal Memos
SA0333	Amendment 1-1 to SB0723

NOTE: Each fiscal memorandum applies only to the amendment(s) identified in the memorandum. The fiscal memorandum must be matched to any amendments that have been adopted.

Fiscal Summary

NOT SIGNIFICANT

Bill Summary

ON APRIL 13, 2017, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 723, AS AMENDED.

AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and enacts the "Campus Free Speech Protection Act," which will apply to every public institution of higher education in this state.

This amendment requires the governing body of every institution to adopt a policy that affirms the following principles of free speech, which are the public policy of this state:

(1) Students have a fundamental constitutional right to free speech;
(2) An institution must be committed to giving students the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, learn, and discuss any issue, subject to measures that do not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 19 of the Tennessee Constitution, such as constitutional time, place, and manner restrictions or reasonable and viewpoint-neutral restrictions in nonpublic forums;
(3) An institution must be committed to maintaining a campus as a marketplace of ideas for all students and all faculty in which the free exchange of ideas is not to be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the institution's community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed;
(4) It is for an institution's individual students and faculty to make judgments about ideas for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress free speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose;
(5) It is not the proper role of an institution to attempt to shield individuals from free speech, including ideas and opinions they find offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed;
(6) Although an institution should greatly value civility and mutual respect,
concerns about civility and mutual respect shall never be used by an institution as a justification for closing off the discussion of ideas, however offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed those
ideas may be to some students or faculty;
(7) Although all students and all faculty are free to state their own views about and contest the views expressed on campus, and to state their own views about and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on the institution's campus, they may not substantially obstruct or otherwise substantially interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe. To this end, an institution has a responsibility to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation and protect that freedom;
(8) An institution must be committed to providing an atmosphere that is most conducive to speculation, experimentation, and creation by all students and all faculty, who must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, and to gain new understanding;
(9) The primary responsibility of faculty is to engage an honest, courageous, and persistent effort to search out and communicate the truth that lies in the areas of their competence;
(10) Although faculty are free in the classroom to discuss subjects within areas of their competence, faculty shall be cautious in expressing personal views in the classroom and shall be careful not to introduce controversial matters that have no relationship to the subject taught, and especially matters in which they have no special competence or training and in which, therefore, faculty's views cannot claim the authority accorded statements they make about subjects within areas of their competence; provided, that no faculty will face adverse employment action for classroom speech, unless it is not reasonably germane to the subject matter of the class as broadly construed, and comprises a substantial portion of classroom instruction;
(11) An institution must maintain the generally accessible, open, outdoor areas of its campus as traditional public forums for free speech by students;
(12) An institution must not restrict students' free speech only to particular areas of the campus, sometimes known as "free speech zones";
(13) An institution must not deny student activity fee funding to a student organization based on the viewpoints that the student organization advocates;
(14) An institution must not establish permitting requirements that prohibit spontaneous outdoor assemblies or outdoor distribution of literature, although an institution may maintain a policy that grants members of the college or university community the right to reserve certain outdoor spaces in advance;
(15) An institution must not charge students security fees based on the content of their speech, the content of the speech of guest speakers invited by students, or the anticipated reaction or opposition of listeners to speech;
(16) An institution must allow all students and all faculty to invite guest speakers to campus to engage in free speech regardless of the views of guest speakers; and
(17) An institution must not disinvite a speaker invited by a student, student organization, or faculty member because the speaker's anticipated speech may be considered offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical, or wrong-headed by students, faculty, administrators, government officials, or members of the public.

This amendment requires the institution to make the policy available to students and faculty annually through one or more of the following methods:

(1) Published annually in the institution's student handbook and faculty handbook, whether paper or electronic;
(2) Make the policy available to students and faculty by way of a prominent notice on the institution's internet site other than through the electronic publication of the policy
in the student handbook and faculty handbook;
(3) Send the policy annually to students and employees to their institutionally-provided email address; or
(4) Address the policy in orientation programs for new students and new faculty.

This amendment specifies that it does not:

(1) Grant students the right to disrupt previously scheduled or reserved activities occurring in a traditional public forum;
(2) Require an institution to fund costs associated with student speech or expression; or
(3) Prohibit an institution from imposing measures that do not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I, Section 19 of the Tennessee Constitution.

This amendment requires an institution, with respect to disciplining students for their speech, expression, or assemblies, to adopt a policy on "student-on-student harassment" defining the term consistent with and no more expansively than the following: unwelcome conduct directed toward a person that is discriminatory on a basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law, and that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit.

This amendment prohibits an institution from imposing costs on students or student organizations on the basis of the anticipated reaction or opposition to a person's speech by listeners.

For purposes of promulgating rules, this bill will take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it. For all other purposes, this bill will take effect January 1,
2018.