O RED to YELL W From NSU amends speech policy after online exposure
Students sit on the Kyser brickway to promote a culture of acceptance. The old policy prohibited demonstrators from marching around campus or occupying more than one space at a time.
MEG DENNY Managing Editor
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SU’s Policy on Public Speech, Assembly and Demonstrations received criticism this week from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a national organization dedicated to defending college and university students’ rights. The policy was deemed “unreasonable” and given a “red light rating,” suggesting that it gave little to no room for expression. NSU’s previous policy limited expressions of free speech to three locations on campus, allowed for only one, two-hour demonstration every seven days and reqired demonstrators to apply for permission 24-48 hours ahead of the event. The FIRE article was published on Aug. 24, and a day later, found its way onto NSU President Jim Henderson’s computer screen. “As soon as I got the article, I was like, holy cow, we can’t do these things,” Henderson said, noting that the code was dated and required immediate attention. Henderson quickly reached out to FIRE and worked with them to raise NSU’s policy to a “yellow light status.” “As far as I know, it was not the intent of anybody at this institution to limit the expression of students,” Henderson said, regarding the red light code. Dean of Students Francis Conine has worked closely with the code for years; each application for demonstration is submitted
to her office. Conine admitted that she found certain statements in the code restrictive. “I think we weren’t paying close enough attention [to the code] and I accept, to some degree, responsibility for that,” Conine said. “I’m really happy that it came up, and I absolutely want to make that policy reflect our values.” While this red light policy was in place for years, Henderson believes that NSU rarely enforced the restrictive requirements. FIRE Director of Policy Azhar Majeed maintained that a rarely enforced code can still discourage expression. “Just having the policy is an ongoing threat to students’ rights,” Majeed said. However, he called NSU’s fast response to FIRE’s article “an encouraging sign.” Professor of History Dr. Greg Granger believes that demonstrators will not necessarily be restricted by a free speech code. “If students want to have a very important and challenging protest—if there’s something they feel that strongly about—I don’t see how a written rule is going to change what they’re going to do anyway,” Granger said. NSU Police Chief John Caliste said that, legally,
students can break the application process, but the consequences of an action that violates a university policy are determined by the Dean of Students office. The newly amended policy now requests that demonstrators send in an application only when “practical and possible,” and eliminates the restriction of one, two-hour assembly every seven days. The previous three “free speech zones” on campus are now “preferred” locations instead:
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Photo by Ashley Wolf
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