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Reading a book on a college campus should not prompt formal administrative intervention. But that’s what’s reportedly happening at Stanford University this week, after a photo of a student reading Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, “Mein Kampf,” circulated on campus last Friday.
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Stanford defines a PIH Incident as “conduct or an incident that adversely and unfairly targets an individual or group” on the basis of actual or perceived characteristics like race, religion, or marital status. Yet, it acknowledges such conduct does not necessarily violate its harassment or discrimination policies that, quite rightly, already prohibit such unlawful conduct.
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This process is not conducive to the atmosphere of free expression Stanford not only commits to, but is required to provide by California’s Leonard Law. The PIH “resolution” process targeting students for intensive institutional intervention will almost certainly chill speech.

The process also raises serious compelled speech and thought reform concerns by pressuring students to take “accountability” and “change” their behavior or views.
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The Stanford situation is reminiscent of one of FIRE’s most high-profile early cases, in which an Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis employee was charged with racial harassment for reading a book about defeating — defeating — the Ku Klux Klan. Co-workers complained the mere mention of the KKK was offensive and administrators ordered him to stop reading the book during his breaks. It’s a case we recall often at FIRE, each time with fresh disbelief that a university thought it was OK to ban reading.