|
« AAUP Homepage
|
Students Protest Free Speech Zones
"Free speech zones," designated areas on campus in which students can hold demonstrations or pass out leaflets, are increasingly under fire from student activists, who say the restriction of such activities to certain areas violates their First Amendment rights. Also under attack are university policies requiring protesters to apply for permission to use the spaces. Many universities report that they instituted the zones to protect free speech rights and prevent demonstrations from interfering with other campus activities. But campus critics say the zones and permission requirements can be used to stifle free speech.
Students have protested free speech policies at several universities in the past two years, including Indiana University and the Universities of Connecticut, Houston, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Wisconsin-Whitewater. At Whitewater, a policy added to the university’s handbook in December was dropped after students, faculty, and staff complained that it was vague and might be used to impede free expression. The policy required sponsors of demonstrations to obtain a permit from the university administration twenty-four hours in advance, and banned "political activity" in residence halls. The university has convened a working group to review the issue.
At the University of Houston, a student organization and its leader are suing after having been denied permission to mount an antiabortion display in a heavily trafficked area of campus. Instead, the group was offered one of two free speech zones, which it rejected as being too remote. Last fall, another antiabortion group filed suit against Indiana University after the administration said the group had to confine its display to a designated zone instead of mounting it in a central area where the university said it might impede traffic. The university and the antiabortion group eventually agreed on a compromise location.
Many institutions have had speech-zone policies in place for a decade or more. Why, then, are they just now becoming an issue? Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, explains that universities seem to be enforcing the rules more, perhaps as a reaction to the growing numbers of companies and groups coming to campuses to market goods or ideas to students. "There have been a handful of cases where students were prevented from quietly distributing written material to other students, despite there being no evidence of any resulting disruption," Goodman says. "The rules were being mechanically enforced."
New Mexico State University instituted a new speech policy following a lawsuit by a graduate student, who was arrested when he refused to relinquish to campus police flyers protesting the university’s free speech policies. The officer approach-ed the student because he was distributing the flyers outside the university’s free speech zone and had not gotten permission to distribute them.
Under the new policy, which was instituted in March 2001, students may use, without prior permission, any publicly accessible outdoor area to collect signatures, distribute materials, or perform "speech acts," as long as they do not unreasonably disrupt other campus activities and are not promoting a commercial product. Events requiring the use of amplified sound, such as microphones or bullhorns, are restricted to certain areas and times.
|