The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 92

Tess Barker * Amanda L. McLittle

to have ras who can enforce institutional
policies and procedures with its educational
mission that is inclusive of all students, including student employees.
in the analysis, it is critical to determine if
the ra is speaking as an employee of the institution or if speaking as a student. the answer
may not be based necessarily on the intent of
the ra, but on the perception of the listener.
for example, an ra may speak at a student
organization event in which he or she participates or at a public event. in such a case,
absent any clothing or other indication of the
student's ra status or disclosure of confidential information, the speech likely would be
seen as speech of a student. But if the ra holds
a program for residents that results in controversial speech, the ra would likely be seen by
those in the room as an employee of the institution and speaking in that context. this can
become an issue when the ra is speaking in a
way that is inconsistent with the values of the
department or in a way that may offend listeners who feel the ra was an institutional representative at the time of the speech.
ras have the right to their perspective
and if they are speaking on opposition to the
institution on a matter of public concern,
this speech would likely be protected, unless
or until it impeded the normal operations of
the institution. at that point, it might lose its
protection under the Pickering-Connick-Garcetti
line of reasoning. understanding what is actionable and what is not actionable is critical
when thinking about ras as simultaneous
student-employees. proactive conversations
with senior housing administration as well
as human resources is beneficial and might
result in content to include in ra trainings.
92

cOncLUsIOn
as housing professionals dealing with first
amendment issues, it is important to consider
three questions before taking action: 1. Where
is the speech taking place? What is the forum
and what implications does that have? 2. Who
is speaking? What is the speaker's status or
relationship to the institution while speaking?
3. What was actually expressed or said? is it
protected speech? is it proper for the forum at
issue? While these three sets of questions do
not always immediately derive a clear answer,
all three are critical to a freedom of expression
analysis because these questions remind us of

Housing professionals seeking
to develop a community that
promotes and respects diverse
points of view will need to
ensure they do so in ways that
do not impermissibly limit free
speech . They may find success
by promoting more free and
informed speech . Attempting to
regulate beliefs through speech
codes, space reservations policies,
and conduct codes may fail to
foster the type of community that
housing professionals desire .

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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