BATON ROUGE (LSU Manship News) – A bill to protect university faculty academic speech died in a Senate committee Tuesday.

The House bill authored by Rep. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, in its original form would have prohibited professors from receiving punishments for things said in the classroom or research topics. However, it was heavily watered down before advancing from the House floor.

The bill was kept in committee by Senate Judiciary A, on a 4-1 vote.

“I’m very frustrated,” Owen said.

As created, the bill provided protections and civil remedies for university staff who faced retributive action based on academic speech, allowing for punitive damages up to $500,000 and fines up to $100,000 against the university.

Owen testified he filed the bill because of cases of academics facing punitive actions for things said in class. He did not specify certain incidents, only saying he has seen faculty members sanctioned for espousing liberal or conservative viewpoints.

“I simply want our academics to know whether I agree with them, whether it's someone from the left or from the right, that they can go into class and teach,” Owen said in committee.

Before reaching the Senate committee, the bill was heavily amended to remove civil provisions for damages and retroactive application.

If passed, the bill would have had no effect on the instance of tenured LSU law professor Ken Levy’s removal from the LSU Law School due to comments he made in the classroom.

“My appreciation of what happened is that there were incendiary language and threats and things that were made, and that doesn’t cover this,” Owen said.

“The university still has the right to decide who they’re going to hire and fire.”

Amendments also eliminated the bill’s ability to restrict university action in personnel decisions and denial of tenure or premotion.

While the bill was killed, Owen said in an interview with the LSU Manship School News Service that he intends to revive it next year and continue pressing his case until it passes.

“I'm very disappointed in the way our state has behaved toward professors, sometimes toward students, and there’s too much bullying going on,” Owen said.