Utah university students win settlement in free speech battle

Dixie State University students were awarded $50,000 in damages and lawyer fees over an incident last March when university official imposed restrictions on the  distribution of flyers with disparaging likenesses of Che Guevera, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. (St. George News, September 18, 2015, by Mori Kessler)

FIRE helped the students filed the lawsuit in March that brought a quick response from  Dixie State administration willing to work out a settlement. The university president announced that the school would change its policies and that Dixie State was a place “where even unpopular answers, seemingly absurd ideas, and unconventional thought are not only permitted, but even encouraged.” (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, September 17, 2015, press release)

In an editorial, The Salt Lake City Tribune, September 19, 2015,  hailed the settlement, “The college maintained the lawsuit was unnecessary, as it was already revamping its policy to remove the prior approval, but the former students celebrated a settlement that essentially brings Dixie in line with the minimum requirements of an institution that wants to call itself a modern American university.”