STATEMENTS ON SOME TOPICS MUST GO THROUGH CU LEADER
The University of Colorado has instructed communications staff on the school’s campuses to avoid partisan language and submit any statements dealing with “sensitive” topics — including COVID19 science, race relations, climate change and the First Amendment — to the office of President Mark Kennedy prior to publication.
That directive, made in a July memo recently obtained by The
Denver Post, was denounced Monday by a CU regent and the chair of the systemwide Faculty Council as a move to control speech.
But the memo was not sent to, nor intended to impact, faculty, said Ken McConnellogue, the CU system spokesman who authored the document. Rather, he said, it was a heads-up to campus higherups calling for more measured, coordinated communication as the election approaches.
Regent Linda Shoemaker, D
Boulder, said she recently learned of the memo and believed it has a “chilling effect” over the campuses. She said she believes it could pressure CU’s campus leaders to censor themselves as to not offend the Republican majority on the Board of Regents.
“I believe this protocol is intended to muzzle campuses which have traditionally been very independent from the system,” she said.
Joanne Addison, an English professor on the Denver campus and chair of the CU Faculty Council, condemned the memo.
“This is a clear effort to regulate speech on some of the most important issues we face today,” she said. “It’s unconscionable that the President’s Office is calling for an ‘even-handed’ and ‘measured’ approach to racism, homophobia and academic freedom, as well as matters related to the health and safety of our students, staff and faculty.”
The document was sent to nine
administrators in senior communications roles at CU’s four campuses. Citing the upcoming election, it lists topics that warrant attention from CU’s top brass 24 to 48 hours before publication, and notes that some campus statements submitted to Kennedy’s office for pre-publication review will be shared with the Board of Regents as well — though “regents will not be asked to edit communications.”
The two-page memo lists more than a dozen subjects that “require heightened attention,” including health insurance, marijuana, COVID-19 science, campus reopening processes, international research funding, corporate research funding, divestment, international student visas, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, First Amendment and free speech, climate change, academic freedom, race relations and LGBTQ+ issues.
Campus vice chancellors, according to the memo, are to “cascade awareness” of this approach to the colleges, schools and other units they oversee, according to the memo.
“The intent is to collaborate on sensitive communications in as timely a way as possible, understanding that many communication issues are fast-moving,” the memo states. “One goal is to not surprise the regents on communications.”
Regent Glen Gallegos, R-Grand Junction, said he was aware this discussion was happening among Kennedy and campus chancellors, but that regents were not involved in crafting the memo. The document, he said, should not be viewed as a policy but as a suggestion. He said he’s against censorship and doesn’t view this memo as such.
“It’s an interesting time out there with COVID and George Floyd and Black Lives Matter and the dollars that are not there from the state,” Gallegos said. “There’s a lot of things going on, and we try to represent what’s fair so that the general public that makes up the University of Colorado believes they’re reading a fair message.”
McConnellogue said the intent of the document was to be measured in the university’s communications, particularly on politically sensitive topics, and to avoid overt editorializing.
He said there have been communications that some regents — “not one regent, not nine regents, but some regents” — have disagreed with, noting that the regents are from different political parties.
Although McConnellogue said there was not one recent campus statement that upset regents, leaders on the Boulder campus officials have issued statements over the last few months asserting Black lives matter, condemning racism and the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and supporting international students.
“In a contentious election year, it doesn’t benefit the university to be a lightning rod on all manner of issues,” McConnellogue told The Post.