Michigan Technological University is the only college in Michigan to earn a green-light rating for its free speech policies, according to a new study by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“Michigan Technological University is committed to maintaining a welcoming atmosphere for the free exchange of ideas, individual differences, and free speech,” the university said in a statement provided to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

Only 58 schools nationwide have earned a green-light rating, which is given to institutions whose policies nominally protect free speech. FIRE rates each institution on several categories. If a school has a yellow rating in most categories but a red rating in one, its institutional rating will be red.

“This report makes clear that there are significant steps nearly every Michigan institution can and should take to improve the state of free speech on their campus,” FIRE president and CEO Greg Lukianoff told CapCon. “We invite them to work with us and lead the way in reforming their policies.”

“A green light rating does not necessarily indicate that a school actively supports free expression in practice; it simply means that the school’s written policies do not pose a serious threat to free speech,” FIRE said in “State of the Speech Codes: Michigan.”

The report evaluated free speech on 26 Michigan campuses, giving each a rating of red, yellow, or green. Most of the campuses were public institutions, but nine of the state’s private schools were included as well. Institutions in the latter group could also receive a warning, indicating that they explicitly subordinate free speech to other values.

Michigan Technological University uses specific language in its Student Code of Community Conduct that protects against arbitrary application or administrative abuse.

For example, sexual harassment is defined as “Conduct on the basis of sex that is unwelcomed and determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity.”

FIRE reports that harassment policies contain the most common type of free speech violation, as many schools have overly broad definitions. Of the schools reviewed in Michigan, 77% have a yellow-light harassment policy, and another 11.5% have a red-light harassment policy.

Michigan Technological University also received green lights for its policies on posting and distributing materials, protests and demonstrations, and bullying.

To increase the number of green-light schools in Michigan, FIRE encourages colleges and universities to model their speech policies after the Chicago Statement, published in 2015.

The statement reads:

“Because the University is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, it guarantees all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn . . . . [I]t is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

Over 80 institutions nationwide have adopted or endorsed the Chicago Statement or a similar policy. Michigan State University is the only school to have done so in Michigan.

FIRE identified other steps schools can take to increase free speech, including:
• Revising restrictive speech codes to comply with the First Amendment
• Teaching free speech from the beginning, using freshmen orientation and first-year programming
• Conducting annual surveys of the school community to understand attitudes toward free expression, and to gather opinions of the campus climate for debate, discussion, and dissent
• Defending the free-speech rights of students and faculty when controversies arise, and resisting calls for censorship.

SEIU Healthcare Michigan is under a trusteeship for the second time in five years over claims of financial mismanagement, according to a letter from its international parent organization, which has installed new overseers.

The letter, available on SEIU’s website, says that new trustees were appointed effective April 27. Their job, SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry writes, is “to provide the leadership and resources necessary to investigate and correct possible financial malpractice.” The new trustees are also to make sure that the Michigan local’s fund are not misappropriated. SEIU Healthcare Michigan was also placed in trusteeship in 2017 due to financial malpractice.

In the early 2000s, SEIU locals across the country, including its Michigan affiliate, took millions of dollars from people who were getting paid by Medicaid to care for their disabled family members in their own home. The union did this by enrolling these caregivers as members, usually without their consent, in a tactic widely known as a ”dues skim.” In Michigan, this diversion came to an end in 2012 when the state amended Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act. The law now prohibits unions to force home-based day care providers and home health caregivers to sign up and pay union dues.

Henry wrote in her letter that the current trusteeship is made necessary by “substantiated allegations of serious financial malpractice.” She said there is strong evidence that the Michigan local lacks internal financial controls and has inadequate accounting systems. The SEIU International president also says it is not clear whether leaders of SEIU Michigan Healthcare formally adopted a budget for the last three years. All the union’s officers, executive board members, trustees and representatives were removed from their positions, according to the letter.

The trustees, according to Henry, are “to provide the leadership and resources necessary to investigate and correct possible financial malpractice.”

SEIU Healthcare Michigan had a record high of 57,239 members in 2010. It had 55,265 in 2011, but that number plummeted to 10,918 members by 2014, two years after Michigan amended its public relations labor act. The union had 5,917 members as of March 30, about a tenth of what it had in 2010.

The decline in membership has meant a significant decrease in its finances. The Michigan union had $3.2 million in assets as of Aug. 13, 2009, but it now has $722,252. It had $15 million in receipts for 2009 and disbursements of $15.6 million. As of March 30, 2002, it has $3.8 million in receipts and $3.9 million in disbursements.

SEIU did not respond to a CapCon request for comment.

Jamie A. Hope is assistant managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email her at hope@mackinac.org.