In a Nov. 12 letter directed to UTD President Richard Benson, the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression and the Student Press Law Center stated their concerns about UTD’s interference with the university’s editorially independent student media publications.
“UTD cannot continue to ignore its constitutional obligations,” FIRE and SPLC said in the letter. “It must come to an agreement with the former editors of The Mercury and allow a free, independent press on campus.”
In the letter, FIRE and SPLC said UTD had violated the First Amendment rights of its students because of how it responded to critical journalistic coverage of UTD’s actions. FIRE and SPLC said the removal of former Mercury Editor-in-Chief Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez and the subsequent denial of Gutierrez’s appeal are in direct opposition to the binding legal obligations public universities have to uphold the First Amendment.
“It appears UTD has retaliated against the paper’s coverage of encampments by ousting its editor-in-chief,” FIRE and SPLC said. “To effect this retaliation, UTD manipulated participation in the [Student Media Operating Board] meeting and ignored the Student Media Bylaws, refusing to allow Gutierrez’s by-right appeal to the SMOB. While UTD may disagree with The Mercury’s content, such as when it places the university in an unflattering light, retaliating against the students for their editorial choices violates the First Amendment.”
FIRE and SPLC said the current structure of SMOB fails to comply with legal obligations to free expression, and that decisions regarding leadership, discipline and policy “must be the sole province of the student editors, as they fall within the exercise of editorial independence — an expressive right that UTD must respect by virtue of the First Amendment.” The board structure must be severely altered because even if the board had been favorable to Gutierrez, it would still have an unconstitutional degree of authority over The Mercury.
“The SMOB’s oversight authority over The Mercury and other UTD student media directly invites the kind of impermissible content control prohibited by the First Amendment,” FIRE and SPLC said. “UTD is not permitted to make decisions about the publication’s content. We remind you that leaving decisions concerning student media policy, operations and leadership to the students also insulates the university from liability for claims brought against the paper.”
UTD has previously received criticism for infringing on its students and faculty’s First Amendment rights. FIRE has given UTD a “red light” Speech Code Rating every year since 2018 because FIRE has identified that UTD “has at least one red light policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.” Since 2022, FIRE has picked up three advocacy cases against UTD: the first focused on an investigation into UTD professor Timothy Farage for his public homophobic commentary; the second focused on a UTD student who had been academically sanctioned for calling university parking attendants “parasites”; and the third concerned UTD’s removal of the Spirit Rocks last fall.
As of publication of this article, UTD has not responded to FIRE’s letter.