Employee free speech and responsibility

Sept. 17, 2025Contact: Christopher Ave, [email protected]

University of Missouri President Mun Choi, Vice President of Human Resources Marsha Fischer and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Matthew Martens sent the following message to staff members on Sept. 17.

Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are living in a period where we are regularly inundated with opinions on major events and key issues of the day. While we respect the rights of employees to speak as citizens on matters of public concern, we also write to remind our faculty and staff to use those freedoms responsibly, especially when engaging on social media.

When speaking as citizens, employees should ensure that they do not appear to speak for the university. If employees identify their position with the university on social media, they should be aware that it is more than likely they will appear to be speaking in their role as an employee. They should take steps to avoid that impression, such as making clear that they are speaking in their personal capacities and not stating views of the university.

Even when employees speak in their personal capacities, their comments have potential to affect the university. In multiple instances, the university has fielded complaints and media inquiries about content posted on social media by employees in their personal capacities. This occurs even in instances when individuals have not identified themselves as employees but their affiliation with the university is often known or can be found.

Employees do not have unlimited rights to speak as citizens on matters of public concern. If an employee's speech can cause disruption such as workplace disharmony, impeded performance or impaired working relationships, the university's interest in the efficiency of its operations may outweigh the employee's rights of free expression. Under the First Amendment, this determination is made on a case-by-case basis and affords employees with considerable room to express themselves as citizens. However, speech that causes significant disruption can be a basis for discipline or termination, even when it occurs off-duty.

We also encourage employees to be thoughtful about the potential audiences of their posts on social media. Just because a message is posted on private social media does not mean it will not be copied or screenshotted and shared more broadly.

University email and other university communication platforms are for official use. Employees should not post copies or excerpts of messages from internal university communications on social media, even if they remove or leave out identifying information of those who were involved in the communications.

Special considerations of academic freedom apply for faculty and graduate instructors. On Monday, we wrote to affirm the foundations and principles of academic freedom. We also provided a reminder of the limits of that freedom as it pertains to teaching and interactions with students and the special obligations when speaking or posting as citizens. Read the message.

Thank you for your support.