Four months after a committee formed by Graduate Student Senate and Student Senate recommended that Ohio University allow student demonstrations on campus outside of the registered assembly areas (a.k.a. free speech zones), nothing has happened.
And according to Kent Smith, vice president of student affairs, nothing will until that committee sends him a final report which would include recommendations of other areas to be designated so-called free speech zones and address other issues. OU administrators are missing two key points in their opposition to greater freedom of student expression on campus. First, OU students do not want more free speech zones ' they want the entire campus to be a free speech zone. Certainly, OU has every right to intervene should assemblies or demonstrations begin to interfere with education, and the committee took this into account with their proposal by including the caveat that demonstrations be permitted as long as such protest is not disruptive to student activity. Perhaps it's time for the administration to begin listening to student views instead of trying to make student views conform to their own preferences.
Second, as West Virginia University found out when it lost its battle to keep free speech zones, this policy is a lawsuit waiting to happen. WVU dropped its free speech zone policy when faced with a lawsuit; OU would likely have to do this same if legally challenged.
So the questions persist: Why are free speech zones necessary? And how much longer will OU have them?
We hope both of these questions will be addressed more fully in the near future. But it's also possible that OU is banking on student apathy to help preserve the status quo. In that case, only one question remains:
Is there a lawyer in the house?
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the executive editors. -
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Whole campus should be a free speech zone, not just designated areas
