Student representatives on a committee to revise UCSD’s speech policy expressed concern at last week’s A.S. Council meeting that potential revisions could limit student voice on campus.
The committee was formed in January 2008 after students and community members protested policy revisions proposed by the administration in spring 2007.
After the San Diego chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union asserted in an eight-page letter that 10 sections of the proposed policy were unconstitutional, administrators opted to scratch the contended policy and urged the creation of a committee to update the year-old policy instead.
Originally composed of 16 members, including administrators, faculty, two A.S. councilmembers and one representative from the Graduate Student Association, the committee has been reviewing the policy since then.
Associate Vice President of Local Affairs Erin Brodwin and Sixth College senior James Baldwin, the committee’s current undergraduate student representatives, gave a presentation before the A.S. Council to explain the items still under debate in revising the policy.
Brodwin said one of the primary student concerns is the further limitation of ‘Ograve;amplified sound zones,’ specific areas in which students are allowed to speak out using amplification devices during specific time frames. Current policy limits amplified speech to within these zones ‘Ntilde; which include Price Center Plaza and Revelle Plaza ‘Ntilde; for use between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays and 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. on weekends.
According to Baldwin, administrators on the committee have proposed revisions that would further limit these hours, decreasing allotted time frames in some areas, including Price Center Plaza, to periods of one hour.
‘Ograve;The amplified sound zones are still an issue,’ Brodwin said at the council meeting. ‘Ograve;We feel this is not a free policy.’
Associate Controller and committee Chair Sally Brainerd said she and other administrators involved in the policy revision process aim to preserve student speech rights.
‘Ograve;The committee strongly supports free speech and does not endorse limited ‘Ocirc;free speech zones,” Brainerd said in an e-mail. ‘Ograve;The committee is working toward a way to handle the potential problem that amplified sound can pose if it gets to be too loud. Speech that does not involve amplification will be permitted unless it is disruptive.’
Though the committee has yet to formally discuss regulations preventing demonstrators from camping out on campus, Baldwin said that administrators have suggested such limitations might be introduced.
‘Ograve;We’ve been told kind of informally that there’s student health concerns that [administrators] have with permitting camping, so that it seems that they’re reluctant to allow that,’ Baldwin said.
Brodwin said he believes these rights should be preserved for students and community members participating in campus demonstrations.
‘Ograve;A lot of people camped out during the apartheid process, for example, to let people know what’s going on,’ Brodwin said at the meeting. ‘Ograve;Camping out was one of the ways that they got noticed. Prohibiting this type of action is prohibiting what we can do.’
The committee projected to complete a drafted revision to the policy by May 1, though Baldwin said that ‘Ntilde; given the scope of the task at hand and the need to allow a reasonable amount of time for a public comment period durin
g the process ‘Ntilde; this date will most likely be extended. He said the committee hopes to avoid a situation similar to the release of the 2007 proposal, in which this comment period was held during finals week, limiting student participation in the proceedings.
‘Ograve;The rest of the committee agrees that all parties who are interested should have a chance to comment, so if we were to release it any time after fifth or sixth week of next quarter, it’s going to be difficult to get those people to comment on it, and we don’t really want that,’ he said. ‘Ograve;We want a very transparent process this time.’
‘Ntilde; Additional reporting by Reza Farazmand, News Editor.
Readers can contact Kelsey Wong at [email protected].