Students stage mock funeral to protest proposed free-speech zones
By The Associated Press
05.14.02
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University students, angry over proposed limits on campus protests, staged a mock funeral yesterday in which they laid the First Amendment to rest in a newspaper-wrapped coffin.
About 18 black-shrouded students carried out their somber protest march as the Faculty Senate endorsed a policy limiting student gatherings and demonstrations to seven "free-expression areas."
"Like an endangered species, the habitat of free speech is shrinking," senior Helena Triplett said during her eulogy. "It is not until we try to move that we realize we cannot."
The policy now goes to President David Hardesty, who plans to study it with an attorney, then take it to the WVU Board of Governors in June.
The students, meanwhile, are taking it to court.
John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said his Virginia-based organization will file a lawsuit against WVU within weeks.
The policy is unconstitutionally vague, wrongly scales down what is intended to be a public forum and gives university officials too much discretion, he said.
The policy also uses language that has traditionally been struck down by the courts and contains vague provisions such as a ban on using sticks or "hard objects" to hold up signs.
"They can't use sticks or hard objects to hold up signs, so essentially they can't have signs," Whitehead said. "And what's a hard object? My arm could be a hard object.
"Anything that regulates free speech has to be very, very clear on its face so the parties, when they look at it, know they'll violate it," he said.
Students and a few faculty supporters began publicly objecting to the little-known free-speech zones in February, arguing the U.S. Constitution invalidates the need for any further regulation.
Although no one has claimed credit for it, the initial policy created just two small zones for some 22,000 students. It first appeared in a WVU student handbook in 1995. Enforcement began in 2000, when students picketed companies recruiting on campus.
The administration has balked at eliminating the zones, arguing the need for a peaceful academic environment must be balanced against the right to speak out.
A committee formed to find a compromise agreed to increase the number of zones while also imposing additional restrictions on student activity.
It also agreed to remove provisions in a draft policy that students found objectionable. A permitting process was abandoned, along with a provision that would have let the university charge groups for the cost of security.
The committee also revised what had been a ban on demonstrations at dormitories and university clinics, creating time, place and manner restrictions instead.
In explaining the policy's latest incarnation, committee members said groups of any size could gather inside the free-expression areas, but groups of more than 30 would have to seek permission to venture elsewhere on school property.
However, students say no such procedure is outlined in writing.
About 40 individuals and organizations sent comments on the new policy to WVU last month. Most were negative, said former Faculty Senate Chairman Bob Griffith, who led the policy committee.
Still, the measure was endorsed by a voice vote, with only a handful of audible dissenters. The Faculty Senate has no authority to set policy; it merely recommends that Hardesty and the Board of Governors adopt it.
Update
Students challenge campus free-speech restrictions
Plaintiffs want federal judge to declare policy governing protests at West Virginia University a violation of First Amendment rights.
06.07.02
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College students: Revised free-expression policy still too restrictive
'We don't intend to accept anything less than the guarantees of the First Amendment,' says West Virginia University doctoral candidate.
04.04.02
