A committee focused on free speech on Tuesday reviewed two complaints of Charlie Kirk-related free speech violations at Oklahoma’s two largest public universities.
The two complaints made to the Free Speech Committee were about Oklahoma State University and University of Oklahoma. While the legislatively-created committee approved a set of recommendations to remediate the complaint for OSU, it issued no recommendations to OU.
The Free Speech Committee, which is housed underneath the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, has no power to adjudicate or make decisions regarding complaints but can issue recommendations to colleges and universities. If complainants want further action to be taken, they need to adjudicate matters through the courts.
The committee’s Complaints Task Force reviewed each complaint and assigned staff to contact the relevant university to investigate.
Andy Lester, chair of the Free Speech Committee, said he understands both incidents to be “fairly straightforward.”
The OSU complaint, submitted to the committee Jan. 5, details a student who said they wore a Turning Point USA hat and gave a speech honoring Kirk at a OSU Student Government Association Senate meeting in September. The complainant wrote they were later called into a meeting by an OSU administrator who asked the hat not be worn and “insinuated” it was racist.
Kirk, a conservative activist, speaker and a founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated Sept. 10. His death prompted free speech debates across the country.
OSU told committee staff that the matter was handled directly with the employee described in the complaint, according to a report from the Free Speech Committee.
“If OSU Admin made the remarks described in the complaint, such remarks would be troubling and potentially violative of the First Amendment,” the report reads. “However, OSU’s actions to address the situation are notable. According to OSU, the employee at issue was removed from his or her position involving SGA, the university president apologized to the Complainant and the university’s legal department implemented additional free speech training.”
The Free Speech Committee voted Tuesday to approve issuing recommendations to OSU to continue free speech training for staff working with the Student Government Association and to consider expanding training to all faculty and staff in contact with students.
A November complaint alleged that a student on OU’s campus had “deliberately” stepped on and knocked down signs for Turning Point USA, Kirk’s group advocating for conservative values in education, on campus. The complainant wrote that the incident was reported to campus security but they didn’t receive a “substantive response or see corrective action.”
During the review of the complaint, OU told committee staff that standard disciplinary procedures were followed, but the university could not disclose what specific actions were taken because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.
The Free Speech Committee issued no recommendations to OU following this complaint.
“A public university’s First Amendment obligations are triggered not by student-on-student interference, but by the institution’s own conduct as a state actor,” a report from the Free Speech Committee said.
Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, said he would like to know if OU has done any broader work to address the student body about free speech following the incident rather than only deal with it on an individual basis.
“Even if it’s isolated, I think I want to make sure that they express that it needs to continue to be isolated and that that type of behavior isn’t going to be tolerated going forward,” he said.
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