The Anti-Free Speech Policy: A response to the Chancellor's Directive on Prohibited Activities
Dear Faculty,
Today, the campus president sent an email with the subject line: “Chancellor’s Directive on Prohibited Activities,” where she outlines the new standards in the Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) Policy. It revises the1972 Supreme Court’s case granting the government the ability to regulate when, where, and how protests and other protected speech activities occur.
The president’s message erroneously highlights the policy’s application to represented employees. This is simply untrue, and all represented employees, including Faculty in Unit 3 (represented by CFA), are subject to negotiate over any and all new policies introduced to their respective bargaining units, this includes the Chancellor’s directive on prohibited activities.
Context
The CSU notified our union, CFA, of the changes to the policy on Friday, 8/16/2024. Our union has already responded to the policy with a demand to meet and confer, as we recognize the policy provides additional restrictions on speech and activities that would limit faculty work and faculty’s participation in protected union activities. CFA published an update earlier today here: https://www.calfac.org/academic-freedom-under-attack-by-csu-management/.
The CSU’s updated policy infringes upon faculty, staff, and student academic freedom and first amendment rights. The proposed updates require faculty, staff, and students to obtain approvals and written permission for free speech and/or expression that can be considered “quite offensive or even insulting.” The proposed update even goes as far as to impede on our own ability to protect our health and safety by banning the use of masks. After an unprecedented global pandemic, this proposed rule marginalizes a very specific group of people under protected status and fails to provide alternatives to ensure safety protocols.
Who gets to decide what is considered a violation of the policy? The University's Response Team, made up of 16 campus administrators, 2 campus officers, zero faculty, zero staff and zero students. Failure of compliance to the policy’s updates may result in disciplinary action and up to legal sanction by the university.
Next steps
A virtual information session will be held for faculty union members in the upcoming weeks, where we will learn the policy implications and what we can do on our campuses to protect our first amendment rights and our union activity.
As a union, our next steps will be based on how management responds to our demand to meet and confer. We can anticipate the Cal State LA “campus addendum” to the statewide policy will obligate campus leadership to negotiate with our local CFA representatives. The CSU must afford the union the opportunity to bargain over changes in policy that interfere with union rights, freedom of speech, and academic freedom. Until we have reached an agreement with the Chancellor’s Office on the policy as it relates to faculty, the existing Time, Place and Manner policy remains in effect.
In union,
The CFA-LA Chapter