I
DAY N NIGHT FESTIVAL The hip-hop festival grows up in its second year. See Page 5.
inquirer Volume VII, No 3
Wednesday, Sept. 27 - Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017
Young Americans for Liberty recruiting members with a “free speech ball” in the DVC Commons.
Berkeley students are dealing with the issue. Where is the debate at Diablo Valley College? MAHRUKH SIDDIQUI Managing editor
“Just because you’re a student, doesn’t mean you don’t have freedom of speech. But your exercise of that right or any other right has to be weighed against its societal impact,” said Diablo Valley College political science professor Scott MacDougall. DVC is not facing the same problems as the University of California, Berkeley, which has in the last year seen many violent protests over free speech, most notably in February
when conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak. UC Berkeley ended up cancelling Yiannopoulos’ speech just two hours before his scheduled time due to violent protests that broke out on campus, causing $100,000 worth of damage, according to CNN. After the cancellation of Yiannopolos’ speech, Berkeley was set to host conservative commentator Ann Coulter, but her speech was also cancelled after campus police said that they could not guarantee the safety of people, the New York Times reported. The cancellation of the speech resulted in a “Pro-Trump free speech” rally on April 27, according to Berkeleyside. “Schools have a right to restrain your right to free speech if it gets in the way of the learning process, because the purpose of a school is learning,” said MacDougall. The court case of Tinker v. Des Moines ensured that students retained their rights to free speech after students in Des Moines, Iowa were suspended for silently protesting the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. While UC Berkeley argues over free speech and whether there is free speech on campus, DVC students agree that Copyright © 2017 The Inquirer - www.dvcinquirer.com
MAHRUKH SIDDIQUI / The Inquirer
The Inquirer’s First Amendment Series n This feature is part one of the Inquirer’s multipart series covering free speech on public campuses. In future segments, we’ll be taking a look at the rights of faculty to express themselves freely, as well as the role of the administration in setting guidelines and policing student conduct. they have the right to free speech on campus, but some students say there is under-representation. “I believe DVC is a safe place to express our views on campus,” said DVC student Robin Stewart. Debadrita Bhattacharya is president of Students for America, a non-partisan club at DVC which was created last semester as a way for students to be able to voice their opinions without fear, according to the club profile.
Continued on Page 3