Illinois University Forced to Undergo Free Speech Training, Pay Fine to Settle Discrimination Lawsuit

A woman stomps on a free speech sign at the University of California–Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 24, 2017. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a graduate student Maggie DeJong, who accused the school of discrimination when it issued “no-contact orders” against her and told her peers to report her “harmful rhetoric.”

In order to settle the lawsuit, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) will revise some of its policies, pay $80,000, and three professors at the school will take training on the First Amendment and its protections of free speech, according to the legal nonprofit Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF).

Ms. DeJong, a Christian conservative, studied art therapy counseling at SIUE, where she openly expressed viewpoints on social media and in class discussions on contentious issues facing America, like abortion, critical race theory, COVID-19 regulations, and censorship.

Undated photo of Maggie DeJong. (Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)

Three of her fellow students reported her speech to university officials, leading to the school issuing no-contact orders against her in February 2022. The no-contact orders, which are normally reserved for those who threaten violence, prohibited DeJong from having any contact or even “indirect communication” with fellow students, who complained that her political and religious viewpoints amounted to “harassment” and “discrimination.”

“There is a view that is becoming more prominent on campuses, that speech is ‘violence,’” DeJong’s attorney Gregg Walters told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview. “You cannot issue an order saying your protected speech is a violation of some code of conduct.”

James T. Minor, SIUE Chancellor, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the university is “unequivocally committed to protecting First Amendment rights and does not have policies that restrict free speech nor support censorship.”

At the same time, he said the school is committed to ensuring a safe learning environment, which can lead to some tension between two sometimes competing principles.

“We accept that balancing these two deeply valued principles of free speech and a safe environment, in real time, represent inherent complications for administering prudence,“ he said. ”This delicate balance also invites debate about where such a line should be drawn in each unique case that, today, also frequently involves the use of social media platforms. Protecting free speech is not only driven by our values, but also by our legal obligations, while at the same time ensuring a non-hostile environment.”

The Lawsuit

DeJong sued the school with the help of ADF, which initially asked the school in a letter (pdf) to rescind the no-contact orders or face legal action, before proceeding with the lawsuit.

“Maggie has always respectfully shared her religious or political views, which every student is entitled to do under the First Amendment. It is a sad day for civil dialogue and freedom of speech when universities can issue gag orders like those issued against Maggie for nothing more than expressing her beliefs—beliefs held by millions of Americans,” Mr. Walters said in May 2022, when ADF filed a federal lawsuit (pdf) on behalf of DeJong.

The university’s efforts to have the lawsuit dismissed were mostly rejected by a federal district court (pdf), paving the way for the settlement, announced by ADF on July 26.

The Settlement

“Public universities can’t punish students for expressing their political and religious viewpoints,” ADF Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffmann said in a statement obtained by The Epoch Times. remove

“As a result of Maggie’s courage in filing suit, SIUE has agreed to take critical steps to comply with the law and the U.S. Constitution and move closer to accepting and embracing true diversity of thought and speech,” Mr. Hoffmann added.

ADF said that, as part of the settlement, SIUE officials agreed to revise both their policies and student handbook to make sure students with “varying political, religious, and ideological views are welcome in the art therapy program,” in addition to university officials being required to pay $80,000.

Further, ADF attorneys will conduct a free speech training session with three SIUE professors as part of the settlement.

“Maggie, like every other student, is protected under the First Amendment to respectfully share her personal beliefs, and university officials were wrong to issue gag orders and silence her speech,” Mr. Hoffmann said.

ADF said in April of this year that it had won over 435 court victories protecting “academic freedom.”

“In common parlance, academic freedom is the idea that students, faculty, and all people associated with public colleges and universities have the right to freely express their beliefs and live consistently with their religion, both on and off campus, without punishment from school officials,” ADF said in a statement.

‘Freshman Disorientation’

Elsewhere, a 2022 study on 50 American colleges by free speech activist group Speech First found that freshman orientations often function as political indoctrination sessions. remove

Speech First gathered college orientation materials from 50 schools, using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Resistance from schools meant that Speech First’s project took almost a year to complete, the group said in a report (pdf) entitled “Freshman Disorientation: How Colleges and Universities Lay the Groundwork for Student Indoctrination.”

After evaluating the programs, the group found the vast majority of schools were promoting left-wing ideas.

“Our public universities do not provide incoming students with a foundation of respect for free speech, open discourse, and civic education,” Speech First wrote.

“Instead, they focus exhaustingly on issues regarding race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and guilting incoming students into a culture of political correctness.”

When students encounter orientations that promote ideas like these, they react with cowardice, Speech First noted.

“Often, they feel so outnumbered, so concerned that their ideas and questions may get them in trouble or destroy their college experience/career, that they are not able to find the courage to speak up.”

“We know we are only scratching the surface of the attempts by universities to coach and guilt students into seeing one another as potential enemies with the goal of suppressing dissenting voices,” the report reads.

Jackson Elliott contributed to this report. This article has been updated with comments from SIUE.