[Important Information for Employees] Social Media Post and Article

[Office of the President]

Dear Campus Community,

An article in today's Cardinal Points newspaper recounts a social media
comment from May 2020. I want to share some details with you about this and
how the college responded at the time and since.

The Facebook comment made by an employee to a non-employee's separate
Facebook post was shared to us last year. We contacted the employee then,
advised them that their social media comment had been shared widely then,
and that their comment was damaging, hurtful and offensive.

It is important to me that we help members of the campus community
understand and learn from the effects of words. At the same time, as a
public university with public employees, we are bound to uphold the First
Amendment. Thus, hateful, hurtful, upsetting, or offensive speech, is
protected, provided it does not cross the line into specific hate crimes,
harassment, assault, or speech that is intended and likely to incite
imminent violence or that constitutes a true threat.

To support the college community's understanding of First Amendment rights
and our responsibility, a campus committee last year determined how we
should approach such matters and balance these requirements. Their work is
online here:
*https://www.plattsburgh.edu/about/president-leadership/speech.html*
<https://www.plattsburgh.edu/about/president-leadership/speech.html>. This
committee was co-chaired by Dr. Michelle Cromwell, our Vice President for
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Cori Jackson, Assistant Vice President
for Student Life.

If you have experienced or witnessed a diversity incident, such as biased
speech, hate speech or a hate crime, *please report this online here*
<https://www.plattsburgh.edu/plattslife/diversity/direct.html> to the
Diversity Inclusion Response Education and Communication Team (DIRECT).

Alexander Enyedi
President
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