Members of the University Centers Advisory Board developed their own policy regarding assembly in Price Center during a November meeting, despite a highly publicized push for student and faculty input on the campuswide free speech policy that is currently in development. (Will Parson/Guardian)

While the process of amending the campus advocacy policy is
ongoing, University Centers officials have defined their own free-speech code —
limiting the activity of community members in Price
Center and splicing the rules for
campus assembly.

After several weeks of meeting with student organizations,
the three student representatives on the committee, charged with revising the
campus outdoor space and distribution policy, submitted their preliminary
proposal on Jan. 31. Unbeknownst to many, however, members of the University
Centers Advisory Board had released their own policy limiting free speech in Price
Center, a key free-speech area on
campus, months earlier.

According to Carol-Irene Southworth, an A.S. Council
representative to the committee, members spent many long hours talking with
student groups, dissecting current legislation regarding First-Amendment rights
on college campuses and evaluating the revision released last June to lay down
the policy principles by which the final version must abide.

The current document was intentionally written broadly,
Southworth said, to protect the campus community’s freedoms as much as possible
before fleshing out all the details.

“We wanted to start where people have all their rights all
the time,” Southworth said. “If there do need to be specifications made, we
need to be careful that it doesn’t get restrictive.”

While the old policy was accused of being unconstitutional
for hampering student speech and assembly, restricting the political activity
of faculty and staff and separating the campus into free-speech zones, the
current document promises not to “infringe the rights of any member of the
university community or community at-large.”

However, the rights of community members in Price
Center could come into question
under a new Price Center Plaza Limited Public Forum Policy the University
Centers Advisory Board approved Nov. 7.

While Price Center
has traditionally been managed as a programming and dining area, rather than
standard outdoor space, the existing University Centers policy was vague,
according to UCAB Chair Matthew Bright. The committee, comprised mostly of
students, decided to update the policy, having University Centers
administrators write it based on UCAB recommendations.

There was much debate within UCAB about allowing people
unaffiliated with the university to assemble in Price Center, Bright said, but
the board ultimately agreed that only UCSD students, faculty and staff with
valid identification are allowed to engage in public speaking activities in the
plaza.

The reason driving this restriction is safety, according to
UCAB Vice Chair Lana Blank, who said that the policy is intended to protect
students from being bulldozed by outside groups.

“We felt like a lot of groups who have absolutely no
affiliation with the university have no obligation to follow the rules we set
up,” Blank said in an e-mail. “We feel like the Price
Center is for UCSD, not just
anyone.”

UCAB member Arian Mashhood recalled the activity of
nonaffiliated religious groups who would often preach in Price
Center last year, setting off
complaints from diners and facing consequences due to alleged free-speech
violations.

“I don’t want to be screamed at while I’m eating lunch and
be told I’m going to hell,” Mashhood said.

While the campus community may have precedence over
outsiders, the revision committee wants to eliminate the distinction between
affiliates and nonaffiliates in order to keep the university open to the
public, Graduate Student Association committee representative Benjamin
Balthaser said.

Balthaser added that the new limited public forum policy may
result in confusion amid the revamping of the general outdoor-space policy.

“Our intent is that there will be one policy covering
everything to avoid confusion and to avoid backdoor ways to prohibit free
speech,” Balthaser said. “Most people in the university are under the
impression that there is one policy, not deeper policies that the university is
implicitly or explicitly keeping quiet.”

While Price Center
currently remains separate from the outdoorspace policy, the committee is
interested in including it in the new revision, Southworth said.

Other changes to the policy include a nonmandatory
reservation system, in which a reservation is an optional method for student
organizations to secure a space. There is also a stipulation requiring student
representation for any future revisions of the policy and a clause limiting
University Centers’ authority over Library Walk.

The student representatives are awaiting feedback from
student organizations, the A.S. Council, the Foundation for Individual Rights
in Education and the American Civil Liberties Union. The committee plans to
reunite Feb. 14 to voice opinions about the new proposal.

The student leadership in this process marks a unique
opportunity for UCSD, according to Southworth, which allows the university to
be an example for other campuses.

“Eventually we do want to have a model free-speech policy,”
Southworth said. “We want to have something that’s groundbreaking, a really
solid way to write a free-speech policy for a university.”