This provision defines key terms used in the chapter, including benefit, campus community, materially and substantially disrupts, outdoor areas of campus, public institution of higher education, student, and student organization.
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. “Benefit” with respect to a student organization at a public institution of higher education means any of the following: a. Recognition. b. Registration. c. Use of facilities for meetings or speaking purposes. d. Use of channels of communication. e. Access to funding sources that are otherwise available to other student groups. 2. “Campus community” means students, administrators, faculty, and staff at a public institution of higher education and guests invited to a public institution of higher education by the institution’s students, administrators, faculty, or staff. 3. “Materially and substantially disrupts” means when a person, with the intent to or with knowledge of doing so, engages in violent or other disorderly conduct that significantly hinders a previously scheduled or reserved activity occurring on university grounds, buildings, and facilities. “Materially and substantially disrupts” does not include conduct that is protected under the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, including but not limited to lawful protests and counterprotests. 4. “Outdoor areas of campus” means the generally accessible outside areas of campus where students, administrators, faculty, and staff at a public institution of higher education are commonly allowed, such as grassy areas, walkways, or other similar common areas and does not include areas outside health care facilities including both stand-alone facilities and mixed-use facilities that are embedded within another facility, veterinary medicine facilities, a facility or outdoor area used by the institution’s athletics program or teams, or other outdoor areas where access is restricted to a majority of the campus community. In recognition of the healing environment that is essential to its clinical purposes, the areas outside health care facilities, including both stand-alone facilities and mixed-use facilities that are embedded within another facility, are not designated public forums. 5. “Public institution of higher education” means a community college established under chapter 260C or an institution of higher learning governed by the state board of regents. 6. “Student” means an individual who is enrolled on a full-time or part-time basis at a public institution of higher education. 7. “Student organization” means a group officially recognized at or officially registered by a public institution of higher education, or a group seeking such official recognition or official registration, comprised of students who are admitted and in attendance at the public institution of higher education, and who receive, or are seeking to receive, student organization benefits or privileges through the public institution of higher education. 2019 Acts, ch 11, §1, 7