POLICY ON FREE SPEECH AND HARASSMENT
Claremont Graduate University is committed to guaranteeing to all members of the Graduate
University community freedom of speech, because this freedom is essential to the search for truth--the
central purpose of any institution of higher education.
Under our system of government, free speech includes the rights to express opinions that are
objectionable, even abhorrent, to the majority or the minority. Freedom of speech must be accorded to
the ideas we hate; otherwise, sooner or later, it will be denied to the ideas we cherish.
The University condemns in the strongest terms harassment or discriminatory conduct on the
basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, ancestry, blindness,
or other physical disability. Our Federal and State Constitutions limit when offensive speech or expressive
conduct may be punished to those circumstances in which expressive activity: (1) materially disrupts or
involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others; (2) amounts to "fighting words" that are
likely to provoke imminent lawless action; (3) is defamatory or obscene. Therefore, although the
University strongly condemns any speech or conduct that stigmatizes, victimizes, or discriminates against
any person, speech or expressive conduct may be subject to discipline for its offensive nature only in the
above situations.