Alabama\u2019s Gulf of America Act took effect last week, making it state policy to use President Trump\u2019s preferred term for the Gulf of Mexico. <\/p>\n
House Bill 2<\/a> requires \u201call state and local entities and their employees\u201d to \u201crefer to the body of water that borders the coast of Alabama as the \u2018Gulf of America,\u2019\u201d and to reflect this \u201cterminology in all newly created maps, documents, educational materials, websites, official communications, and other resources.\u201d <\/p>\n The page-and-a-half-long law has one exception for the public schools, colleges and universities it impacts: They can use Gulf of Mexico \u201cfor historical purposes\u201d during instruction. Otherwise, the law doesn\u2019t exempt Alabama faculty or other university employees, including reporters, from its restriction on what they can call this body of water.<\/p>\n The University of Alabama at Birmingham has ordered journalists at WBHM, the university-sponsored NPR affiliate, to comply, according to emails obtained by Inside Higher Ed. Back in June, Steve Murray, UAB\u2019s executive director of business operations, told then-WBHM Executive Director Will Dahlberg, \u201cWe will be referring to the Gulf as \u2018Gulf of America\u2019 in content written or spoken by WBHM staff beginning on Oct. 1.\u201d That\u2019s when the law took effect.<\/p>\n The emails then recount a string of questions and confusion over how to follow the law. Murray, who oversees WBHM, asked the station to track compliance and count references to the \u201cGulf of America\u201d versus the Gulf of Mexico \u201cduring our newscasts and stories published\/shared on our website, social media, podcasts, etc.\u201d He cited a legal analysis that came from \u201cCam,\u201d which Dahlberg told Inside Higher Ed meant Cam Earnhardt, the top university lawyer.<\/p>\n Earnhardt further assessed the risk of WBHM using content from third parties that might mention the Gulf of Mexico, including NPR and the Associated Press, which both provide content to WBHM and regularly use \u201cGulf of Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that risk, it would make sense for WBHM to evaluate how often there are references in its content to this body of water and also how difficult and costly it might be to revise third-party content before displaying it or broadcasting it on a WBHM broadcast or website,\u201d Earnhardt wrote. \u201cUAB should then use that information to evaluate the risk of displaying and broadcasting this content without modification as an institution.\u201d<\/p>\n The law also requires public employees to \u201cmake reasonable efforts to update all pre-existing resources owned by state and local entities\u201d under their jurisdiction\u2014including maps, educational materials and communications\u2014to reflect the name change \u201cwhere practicable,\u201d making an exception if doing so \u201cwould impose an operational or financial burden.\u201d<\/p>\n In August, WBHM Managing Editor Andrew Yeager expressed confusion over the tracking request, writing, \u201cAre you suggesting we catalogue every reference on air?\u201d Dahlberg asked for more guidance, to which Murray initially simply replied, \u201cSeriously?\u201d Yeager eventually wrote that it\u2019s \u201cnot possible to catalogue ever[y] instance of Gulf of Mexico across all our channels.\u201d Murray also told Dahlberg that staff needed to sign a document saying they were aware of the law and their obligations as state workers.<\/p>\n UAB spokespeople told Inside Higher Ed Tuesday that \u201cthere was a disconnect regarding a request for data that was previously resolved. There are no plans for attestation or tracking.\u201d But they didn\u2019t provide any written guidance that the university has given to employees, including faculty and WBHM journalists, regarding how they must follow the law. <\/p>\n Universities across the state didn\u2019t respond with much information about how they\u2019re implementing the law. <\/p>\n The Silent South<\/p>\n The Alabama Constitution gives the University of Auburn system and University of Alabama system, which includes UAB, greater autonomy<\/a> than other public higher ed institutions, meaning they might be able legally to refuse to follow the law if they desired to. The Gulf of America Act doesn\u2019t say they\u2019re exempt. The systems didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment this week. <\/p>\n Jason Senkbeil, a tenured professor in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa\u2019s Department of Geography and the Environment, said he was told faculty have to follow the law. <\/p>\n \u201cI teach a 100-level class and I\u2019ve been calling it \u2018the Gulf\u2019 and not saying which one for years because I didn\u2019t know where this was going,\u201d Senkbeil said. \u201cSo I told my class I have to say it now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s state law,\u201d he said. \u201cI will comply with state law.\u201d<\/p>\n Beth Davis-Sramek, president of the Auburn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said, \u201cI have not heard a thing. There has been no official word [or] formal communication from Auburn leadership about this law.\u201d She said Inside Higher Ed\u2019s email regarding this story was the first she\u2019d heard of it. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for the University of South Alabama said in an email simply, \u201cAs a state institution, we are going to comply with Alabama state law.\u201d Other universities didn\u2019t respond at all. <\/p>\n Jim Purcell, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, told Inside Higher Ed in an email that because \u201cthe requirements are established directly in state law,\u201d his agency \u201cdid not issue separate guidance to institutions regarding implementation of this Act.\u201d<\/p>\n David Standridge, the Republican state representative who introduced the legislation, picked up his phone Friday, but after this reporter introduced himself, he said he was in a meeting and asked to talk later. He didn\u2019t call back or respond to follow-up requests for comment this week. <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, who signed the legislation into law, did provide comment. <\/p>\n \u201cThe state of Alabama refers to the Gulf as the Gulf of America, period,\u201d the spokesperson wrote in an email. \u201cIt is not hard to see that these so-called \u2018free-speech\u2019 complaints are just a cover up for blatant bias against the Trump Administration.\u201d (On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> attempting to rename the Gulf.) <\/p>\n Academic Freedom Concerns<\/p>\n Davis-Sramek said she has worries about the law that don\u2019t specifically relate to the body of water.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they can say, by legislative mandate, \u2018We\u2019re going to force employees to reference Gulf of America,\u2019 then what else might they force us to say\u2014or restrict us from saying\u2014in terms of our teaching and research?\u201d she said. \u201cThis, in particular, seems silly on the surface. But I think it begs a bigger question: If they can do this, what else can and might they do?\u201d<\/p>\n The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has expressed concern that the law violates the First Amendment. Michael Hurley, a government affairs counsel at FIRE, noted that the U.S. Constitution protects faculty academic freedom at public universities. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not the same as the state cartographer who\u2019s making a map,\u201d Hurley told Inside Higher Ed.<\/p>\n \u201cProfessors have the right to generally speak freely about\u00a0\u2026 educationally relevant subjects in the classroom, in their research,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the state certainly cannot impose an orthodoxy on those professors.\u201d <\/p>\n The law\u2019s constraints on university-employed journalists raise a different, though related, set of concerns. Aaron Terr, FIRE\u2019s public advocacy director, told Inside Higher Ed there isn\u2019t much precedent for how such a law applies to public radio stations. <\/p>\n \u201cThe government generally has broad authority to regulate what its employees say as part of their jobs,\u201d Terr wrote in an email. \u201cFor example, a state agency naturally can control what an employee puts in an agency press release. But that rule isn\u2019t absolute.\u201d <\/p>\n