§ 261H.3 — Protected activities

Iowa § 261H.3

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title VII: EDUCATION, HISTORY, AND CULTURE
• Ch. 261H: SPEECH AND EXPRESSION — PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Text

1. Noncommercial expressive activities protected under the provisions of this chapter
include but are not limited to any lawful oral or written means by which members of the
campus community may communicate ideas to one another, including but not limited to all
forms of peaceful assembly, protests, speeches including by invited speakers, distribution
of literature, circulating petitions, and publishing, including publishing or streaming on an
internet site, or audio or video recorded in outdoor areas of campus.
2. A member of the campus community who wishes to engage in noncommercial
expressive activity in outdoor areas of campus shall be permitted to do so freely, subject
to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions, and as long as the member’s conduct
is not unlawful, does not impede others’ access to a facility or use of walkways, and does
3 SPEECHANDEXPRESSION—PUBLICINSTITUTIONSOFHIGHEREDUCATION,§261H.5
not disrupt the functioning of the public institution of higher education, subject to the
protections of subsection 1. The public institution of higher education may designate other
areas of campus available for use by the campus community according to institutional policy,
but in all cases access to designated areas of campus must be granted on a viewpoint-neutral
basis within the bounds of established principles of the first amendment to the Constitution
of the United States.
3. A public institution of higher education shall not deny benefits or privileges available
to student organizations based on the viewpoint of a student organization or the expression
of the viewpoint of a student organization by the student organization or its members
protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In addition, a
public institution of higher education shall not deny any benefit or privilege to a student
organization based on the student organization’s requirement that the leaders of the student
organization agree to and support the student organization’s beliefs, as those beliefs are
interpretedandappliedbytheorganization,andtofurtherthestudentorganization’smission.
4. This section shall not be interpreted as limiting the right of student expression in a
counter demonstration held in an outdoor area of campus as long as the conduct at the
counter demonstration is not unlawful, does not materially and substantially prohibit the free
expression rights of others in an outdoor area of campus or disrupt the functioning of the
public institution of higher education, and does not impede others’ access to a facility or use
of walkways, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions that are consistent
with established principles of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
5. This chapter shall not be interpreted as preventing public institutions of higher
education from prohibiting, limiting, or restricting expression that the first amendment
to the Constitution of the United States does not protect, including but not limited to a
threat of serious harm and expression directed or likely directed to provoke imminent
unlawful actions; or from prohibiting harassment, including but not limited to expression
which is so severe, pervasive, and subjectively and objectively offensive that the expression
unreasonably interferes with an individual’s access to educational opportunities or benefits
provided by a public institution of higher education.