23
November 2012 from
free speech, pg. 21
use of other campus areas. “Technically you can do that anywhere on campus, said Robert Brouse, Manager of the HUB Information Desk and Event Management. “There’s no policy that stops you from that.” “The policy was just written that way because ten or more normally means it’s an organization event or rally and they encourage it to be reserved,” Brouse said. “The only reason they put it that way is a space for someone to reserve, then you’re guaranteed the space. If another group reserves that space first, then you lose it. “It’s not an issue of time, place and manner.” FIRE also gives Penn State its yellow light rating for what it classifies as a posting policy, under the guidelines for
“The most dangerous stages, however, come later, when some students come to believe that not only should they not have those rights, but that censorship is what good and noble people do.” Greg Lukianoff, president of FIRE
“Decorations and Displays” in undergraduate residence halls. FIRE takes issue with the regulation which states that “Any materials found to be offensive or outside the boundaries of reasonable community expectations will be referred to the area Residence Life staff.” Brouse referred to the display policy as the “fire policy.” The eight-point policy for student doors and the six-point policy for student room and lounge windows state that adherence prevents damage and “eliminate[s] potential safety hazards.” “I can understand from the University perspective that it degrades from the look of campus if you’re posting posters on doors and windows, whether it’s commercial or noncommercial, when there are general use bulletin boards all over campus,” Brouse said. According to its Posting Policies guidelines, FIRE finds that Penn State’s policy goes “beyond reasonable limits” of “time, place and manner restrictions.” Auburn University also cited safety— “the safety, health, and wellbeing” of students—when student Eric Philips was forced to remove a Ron Paul poster from his window in November 2011. Since then, FIRE has taken up the case and has been helping Philips document and publicize other instances of flags and banners left in residence hall windows and doorways across campus. The documentation is being used to undermine the “safety” rationale for such an unevenly enforced policy on student expression.
Photo by Jessica Beard
Penn State students Noah Oriss, Laufa Bradley, Daniel McGill and Nick Shaff advertise for the Penn State Atheist/Agnostic Association's "Stone an Atheist" fundraiser on the HUB patio Sept. 21.
Peter Bonilla, FIRE’s Associate Director, Individual Rights Defense Program, wrote in an April 23 article that when administrations apply the “safety defense” this way, “it only makes them look foolish.” FIRE president Greg Lukianoff wrote a September 20th Daily Caller column claiming that “censorship of [the] Ron Paul poster is part of [a] larger problem.” “The problem is that students, educated on campuses that over-regulate and apply double standards to speech, have
simply gotten used to it,” Lukianoff said. “The first [step] is simply misinforming students about the rights they have and the importance of those rights. The most dangerous stages, however, come later, when some students come to believe that not only should they not have those rights, but that censorship is what good and noble people do.” To learn more about FIRE and its coverage of Penn State cases, visit thefire.org. You can submit your own case at thefire.org/cases/submit/.
Bard Cat sayeth: “Pray thee, need more?”
“Get thee to the web!” Voicesweb.org