After she agreed to give a book talk at Weber State University, Darcie Little Badger was sent a document titled “Speaker Information Request.” It asked Little Badger for personal and logistical information, all fairly standard for a guest speaker, but at the bottom of the page there was something unusual: a list of banned words and phrases.
The document cited HB 261, a bill targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that passed the Utah State Senate in July 2024. The bill prohibits diversity training and statements in higher education, among other provisions. It includes several of the prohibited words Weber State passed along to Little Badger but does not apply them to speech on campus.
Little Badger, who was slated to talk about a book she co-edited — Beyond the Glittering World: An Anthology of Indigenous Feminisms and Futurisms — decided she could not speak at the event with these restrictions, and she bowed out of the event.
Local-media coverage followed, and late last week, the university’s interim president said the institution would review its guidance on the law, and revise it “to be more nuanced.” “The goal of this review and revised approach is to uphold the letter and spirit of the law, but also to ensure we remain fiercely committed to free speech, academic freedom, and fostering an environment where everyone at WSU feels welcome to express their thoughts, engage different viewpoints, and learn from one another,” wrote Leslie Durham, the interim leader.
Little Badger’s event was not the first time Weber State earned media attention for its application of HB 261. In October, faculty organizers decided to cancel their planned conference on “Navigating the Complexities of Censorship” due to the guidelines they were given.
Richard Price, a professor of political science at Weber State who studies censorship and was planning on speaking at and moderating the conference, said nothing in the law regulates what can be said at a campus event, and that the university appeared to be acting out of fear of repercussions, not the law itself.
“It’s about adopting an interpretation that essentially tries to prohibit anyone from ever saying anything controversial in an event, so that the news doesn’t cover it and they don’t get angry calls,” Price said.
Weber State has responded to the passage of the law in visible ways. For example, it shut down its Black Cultural Center and canceled plans to create other identity-based centers on campus. (The law states that campuses cannot offer initiatives that promote “the differential treatment of an individual,” among other things, based on “personal identity characteristics.”)
State Rep. Katy Hall, a Republican and the bill’s chief sponsor, wrote in an email that HB 261 “did not ban any words or visits by guest speakers.” Instead, she said, the bill prohibits “ideological litmus tests” that discriminate against students, faculty, and staff.
The university’s guidelines linked to the Utah System of Higher Education’s guidance on the law, which states that it does not affect “academic freedom.” The document also says that “events focused on highlighting a group based on personal identity characteristics” are “allowed but should clearly and expressly indicate that they are for educational and academic purposes and that they are open to all.”
Utah System of Higher Education HB 261 Guidance (PDF)
The university has a page on its website dedicated to frequently asked questions about HB 261, and one question asks how the law will affect speakers. The university answers: “Under current university and Board of Higher Education policy, the university is charged to provide the opportunity for a plurality of speakers to engage an array of viewpoints. HB 261 affirms that directive and the university will be reviewing its processes for creating those forums for speakers on campus.”
Little Badger said the guidance she was given, which included “bias,” “oppression,” and “intersectionality” as prohibited words, essentially prevented her from speaking, given the subject matter of the book she’d co-edited. “There’s poetry that deals with the reality of how the past of oppression affects our current struggles for our rights as indigenous peoples, and how we might imagine a future where there’s less inequality,” she said.
Her co-editors, Stacie Shannon Denetsosie and Kinsale Drake, went ahead with the event. Denetsosie said that, as a Utah resident and educator, she wasn’t too fazed by the list and found ways to work around it.
“It felt like a limitation, but also these students still deserve to hear from me,” she said. “It’s so important for them to hear and see two successful Native Americans coming and speaking about the work that they do because in Utah there’s hardly any Native American faculty or staff for students to learn from.”
Little Badger said she felt bad for the university officials forced to navigate this policy, but that she could not speak at an event where censorship was in effect.
“The people who champion this type of censorship,” she said, “I think they’re afraid of difference.”
