Misti Cordell, Chair of the Board of Regents, speaks as Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry stands by on executive order about free speech for higher education institutions on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, outside of the LSU Memorial Tower. (Gabriella Guillory / The Reveille)
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Tuesday asking the Board of Regents to make recommendations for improving freedom of expression policies on the state’s college campuses.
“Students should be able to freely engage in discussions and talk about ideas and the things that they believe in because that is how we grow,” Landry said at a news conference on LSU’s campus. “That is how we are educated, rather than indoctrinated.”
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in college campuses around the country is where, again, as I said, one voice seems to be quieted while another seems to yell,” Landry said.
The executive order also includes aspects of a 2018 state law that requires colleges and universities to submit annual reports to the Legislature and the governor’s office “regarding any barriers to or incidents against free expression that occurred at the institution.” It also calls on the Board of Regents to work with schools to develop free speech policies. Read the full executive order below.
Each school adopted new free speech policies in 2018. Spokespeople for the Legislature, Landry and LSU have not yet responded to requests for comment as to whether schools have been submitting the required reports.
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The order requires Regents to make recommendations on improving those policies to ensure public areas are available as traditional public forums and are open on the same terms to those engaging in noncommercial expressive activity. It also encourages Regents to make recommendations ensuring traditional public forums, such as LSU’s Free Speech Alley, are clearly identified, and ensuring policies for reporting bias or discrimination do not discipline conduct outside of the definition of student-on-student discriminatory harassment.
“On college campuses, we have bright young minds,” Regents Chairwoman Misti Cordell said. “They have their own voice and values and morals and things that they would like to uphold. These voices we need to keep strong because they carry on into our future.”
Landry’s event was held in conjunction with LSU’s chapter of Turning Point USA, an ultra-conservative student activist organization. The group is known for bringing controversial conservative figures to college campuses. Events put on by chapters across the country often draw counter protesters who have occasionally led to speaking engagements being canceled for security reasons.
“For far too long, college faculty and our peers have cultivated an atmosphere and an environment that promotes one ideology and one set of values as the only acceptable values,” Ethan Vogin, vice president of the LSU Turning Point Chapter, said at the news conference.
Though Landry and Vogin did not name a specific ideology, their comments align with common conservative concerns about liberal indoctrination on college campuses.
Landry was asked by a reporter whether his concerns about dominating ideology on college campuses conflict with a law he championed that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every K-12 and college classroom.
“The Ten Commandments are the foundation under which Western civilization lies,” Landry said. “Denying that denies you the existence of the freedoms that you enjoy today.”
Many Louisiana campuses fell short in annual free speech analyses from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a right-leaning organization that monitors freedom of speech at colleges and universities.
Louisiana Tech and McNeese State were the only Louisiana schools to receive a “green light” rating from FIRE, meaning they do not have any policies that seriously imperil free speech.
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