The Idaho House of Representatives hearing will continue on House Bill 364, legislation aimed to codify student rights of protest on public university campuses.
The bill is just one bill in a deluge of state bills targeting universities in the state following the 2020 election.
Barbara Ehardt, a representative of Idaho’s 33rd district, spoke on behalf of the bill in the hearing. Ehardt is notable for previously putting forward the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which banned transgender women and girls from playing women’s sports. After passing, it was issued a preliminary injunction against it by a federal judge.
“Many of us have listened to concerns that have come from our students and what we are trying to do is to codify that which our first amendment already guarantees,” Ehardt said.
This reiterates the rights of a person to protest on a public university’s campus. The university cannot censor the person due to their status as a government entities.
“Universities have gotten used to creating their code language, their own speech zones, their own way of dealing with how a person feels, and if you’re offended, if somebody gets offended, you are no longer able to speech,” Ehardt said.
Regarding the classroom, Ehardt says if someone is offended, they may report and silence the speech presently. Ehardt didn’t give any examples, but said, “I know we all have heard these stories in the classroom.”
Regarding protocol for offensive language on campus, University of Idaho Communications Direction Jodi Walker could not immediately be reached for comment.
Outside of the previous protections, the bill would require all Idaho universities to create a student handbook detailing their rights to free speech on campus as detailed in the bill. Universities will also be required to post a report on their website, which they also have to send to Gov. Little and the Legislature for review. Along with this any barriers that may presently exist, and incidents of it occurring.
In the committee meeting, several citizens spoke on the bill such as Kathy Dawes of Moscow. “During this legislative session, budgets for Idaho’s colleges and universities have been defeated based on arguments from legislators,” Dawes said. “Who are absolutely determined to prevent our schools and universities from doing what Bill 364.” Referring to several efforts by the legislature to restrict university’s ability to speak on subjects such as Black Lives Matter and slashing of Boise State University’s budget after a conflict with legislators over social justice.
“Until this legislature reverses its unjustified punitive actions towards education funding based on mainly their discomfort with actual free speech regarding specific subject areas,” Dawes said. “This five-page bill is merely empty words.”
Idaho House Assistant Minority Leader John McCrostie called out Ehardt for lack of bipartisan discussion on the bill and voiced his concern over “the strictness that this bill contains.”
At the end of the hearing, legislators moved the bill to the floor ith a 12-3 vote.