TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee Community Community College recently passed a Civility and Mutual Respect policy.
The policy allows the college to discipline students, faculty, and staff for disrespectful behavior or threatening actions.
The new Civility and Mutual Respect policy has caused much debate at TCC. Some believe the policy encourages respect while others believe it opposes free speech.
"The intent of the policy is to create an environment on campus where everybody treats one another with respect," said Barbara Wills, TCC Administrative Services Vice President. "It was just something we thought was necessary in order to show our support for that type of positive environment."
This policy is coming up after an investigation of an alleged racist post by TCC student a month ago. While Board of Trustee members believe this policy will prevent this behavior, others say this policy was passed with no debate or input from the public and it infringes on their right to free speech.
"College is suppose to be about free expression," said Martin Balinsky of the TCC Faculty Union. "The ability to debate the marketplace of ideas and when we start tying discipline to such subjective measures, I feel like it's a dangerous precedent."
TCC Board of Trustees say they already have policies which protect freedom of speech on campus and they hope everyone understands the policy is meant to help not hurt.
