UA Faculty Senate: Regulate "Hate Speech"

The Crimson White link in the last post also contained this little tidbit:

[Faculty Senate President John] Mason said the Senate will also follow up on resolutions passed in the fall and continue to push UA administrators to react to a resolution dealing with health care and hate speech on campus.

"The issues will not die," Mason said. "Don't think that members of the steering committee will easily forget about it."

The hate speech resolution that Mason mentions was reported on by the Crimson White following its passage last September, and I threw my two cents in here.

Here are the most illuminating snippets (emphasis added).

...The University of Alabama has a duty reflected both in law and in standards of civility to control behavior which demeans or reduces an individual based on group affiliation or personal characteristics, or which promotes hate or discrimination, in all formal programs and activities...

Be it further resolved, that University officials in charge of student programming develop clear policies restricting any behavior which demeans or reduces an individual based on group affiliation or personal characteristics, or which promotes hate or discrimination, in any approved University program or activity, and that these policies be incorporated into any contract entered into by the University regarding participation in formal University programs;

Be it further resolved, that while freedom of speech should be less restricted in activities that are not formally recognized or facilitated by the University, all members of the University community and guests should be encouraged to behave in a civil manner and to avoid any behavior which demeans or reduces an individual based on group affiliation or personal characteristics or which promotes hate or discrimination; and

Be it further resolved, that representatives of the Faculty Senate and of other organizations on the University campus dedicated to opposing bigotry and malicious aggression be invited by the University administration to offer commentary on the proposed protocols at a time when such commentary can possibly be incorporated into the protocols.

Here are a few questions that the Faculty Senate and UA administration might want to consider in their free time:

1. Who will define hate speech?
2. Who will judge whether a member of the university community is guilty of hate speech?
3. What will be the penalties for hate speech? It seems to me that hatred can manifest itself in actions ranging from "not very nice" to "pure-D evil." How will that determination be made and will the penalty be tailored to fit the crime?
4. Will Women's Studies classrooms, where males are frequently "demeaned and reduced" for their adherence to "masculine ideals", be subject to the new hate speech guidelines?
5. Will hateful speech and conduct directed against Christian fundamentalists and creationists be tolerated under the speech code?
6. If a member of the University community uses the word "n*****" to refer to a black person, would that be considered hate speech? If so, would Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which uses that term quite often, have to be banned? Does this judgment depend on the context in which the slur is used?
7. If someone says, "Those Kappa Alphas are a bunch of rednecks", does that constitute hate speech? What if the person smiled pleasantly while he was saying it?
8. Would it be tolerable to say, "[Insert ethnic group here] are stupid, ignorant, and backwards?"
9. Would it be tolerable to say, "Conservatives (or liberals, or Marxists, or fascists) are stupid, ignorant, and backwards?"
10. Is truth a defense? If so, are there any University professors left who actually believe in "truth"?

And finally, can't you see that speech codes would seriously impair free debate and discussion on campus? ARE YOU GUYS REALLY SERIOUS?