Colleges enact new protest, speech restrictions

Eric Zuniga, Campus Carrier news editor

James Fox, Campus Carrier deputy news editor

While many colleges across the country are changing demonstration and speech policies in the aftermath of this spring’s protests over the Israel-Hamas War, Berry is maintaining its existing protest and speech rules. 

According to a report in the New York Times, about 3,100 people were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses this spring. Since then, colleges have instituted new protest restrictions, including bans on encampments at Emory University and the University of California and registration requirements at Carnegie Mellon University and Rutgers University. 

According to Dean of Students Lindsey Taylor, Berry’s community standards and freedom of expression polices, which are included in the Viking Code, have have changed little over the past few years. 

“In this role, which is where I have more jurisdiction over the Viking Code of Conduct, there’s not been major substantive changes to the Viking Code of Conduct,” Taylor said. “Our community standards have not 
changed at all.”

These community standards lay out Berry’s expectations for student behavior. The standards say that students should not disrupt academic activities and other community members’ free speech. 

“The purpose of the college campus is to ensure that our students have access to academic programs,” Taylor said. “Where we would start to draw some lines or ask some questions about demonstrations, protests or even if it’s just one person is if those behaviors limit other students from being able to participate in the academic program.”

Taylor said Berry’s student demonstration policies give the administration flexibility. 

“We have been talking regularly about different case scenarios — ‘what we would do if, what we would we do when,’” Taylor said. “But right now, most of our policies are written in a way that allows some really 
good flexibility.”

Berry currently has no rules restricting protests in certain areas or requiring registration beforehand with administration, but Taylor said these rules may change if more unplanned demonstrations take place. 

“We have become aware if a group is wanting to protest, and so we haven’t had much of an issue,” Taylor said. “There may be a moment where we say any kind of demonstration or protest has to be approved. A lot of places do that not to limit but rather to make sure that safety is in place for those attending.”

Though much recent attention has focused on student demonstrators, faculty have also been part of the protests and political action that the war in Gaza has spurred. 

“One thing that’s true as we look at the Gaza demonstrations around the country is that it wasn’t just students, it was students and faculty; it wasn’t just undergraduates, it was grad students and so on,” Professor of International Affairs John Hickman said. 

Barnard College, at the beginning of its academic year, posted guidance on its website saying that employees posting signs supporting a particular geopolitical viewpoint violated their community expectations. The guidance was later revised to prohibit employees posting signs supporting a political candidate or party. 

Hickman said tight restrictions on protests and political speech can stifle important discussions. 

“They do create an atmosphere, sometimes an atmosphere that’s hostile to open discussion of important issues,” Hickman said. “Ideally, what we’d like to have is an atmosphere in which people may speak to each other civilly, even if they disagree.” 

Provost David Slade said that Berry does not place restrictions on how faculty can express support for a political viewpoint. 

“We’re not putting those policies in place where we’re trying to control people’s communication,” Slade said. “That’s not a place we want to be.”

According to Taylor, Berry places few restrictions on how and where students can post messages in support of a political cause. 

“The only thing is signs in residence hall windows, but that’s less to do with political speech and more to do with access and exit,” Taylor said. 

The line between legitimate political expression and speech that incites hate or violence is hard to determine, however. During the 2016 presidential election, some Berry students chalked the phrase “Build the Wall” on sidewalks on campus, referring to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s pledge to end undocumented immigration. Other students responded by chalking messages promoting kindness and love. Though the pro-Trump messages were seen as hate speech by some, Berry did not remove any of the messages to avoid the risk of censorship. 

Taylor said the clearest red line regarding speech on campus is incitement against specific individuals. 

“My threshold of discomfort or comfort may look very different from yours, so to place definitions or limits or parameters around safety is almost impossible,” Taylor said. “Where I do think there is a line is if I walked out today and there was chalking on a sidewalk that had a name to it.”

Political issues and discourse extend to the classroom as well. Under the principles of academic freedom, faculty have broad leeway to pursue perspectives in research and teaching that falls under their area of expertise. Slade said that students and faculty should work with each other to navigate political issues in class. 

“It’s probably a good idea for faculty to help students understand the context, to put individual works in the context of the larger objectives of the class,” Slade said. “Students should not think that just because a professor assigns a reading that that’s their perspective. As a professor myself, I assign lots of things from lots of different perspectives.”

Slade said students should be quick to listen when disagreement arises.

“Conflict is okay,” Slade said. “You can say any meaningful relationship will have conflict. The question is how you deal with it.”

Hickman said freedom of expression in academia is crucial for the good of society. 

“There are moments in American history when the only place where truths can be spoken aloud are on campuses,” Hickman said. “When government and news media and other centers of power are all speaking with one voice, but they’re leaving something out, that’s a moment when higher education can do something really crucial and that’s to speak truths that other people are afraid to speak.”