Students challenge campus free-speech restrictions

By The Associated Press

06.07.02

Printer-friendly page

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A civil rights group sued West Virginia University in federal court yesterday, arguing a policy that restricts public demonstrations on campus is unconstitutional.

The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville, Va., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Elkins for students Matthew Poe, Mike Bomford and Brooke Thomas, as well as the Free Speech Coalition, Students for Economic Justice and the West Virginia Animal Rights Coalition.

The group wants a judge to declare the new "Policy on Freedom of Expression" a violation of the First Amendment right to free speech and assembly, and to stop WVU administrators from enforcing it.

"In effect, this 'free speech zone' policy gives university administrators the authority to permit or deny student expression based solely on their personal opinion of the particular message or viewpoint," said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute.

"The Supreme Court has said that a public university is the 'quintessential free market of ideas,'" he said, "and the Rutherford Institute has filed this lawsuit to ensure that it remains so."

WVU President David Hardesty, the WVU Board of Governors and J. Michael Mullen, chancellor of higher education, were named as defendants.

School officials have not seen the lawsuit and are not prepared to comment on it, said WVU spokeswoman Becky Lofstead.

Many colleges and universities have tried to adopt policies like WVU's, but Whitehead said most back down when the constitutionality is challenged. The Rutherford Institute wrote Hardesty to inform him of its position, but Whitehead said he got no response.

"There's been complete silence on this," he said. "If they would have gotten back to us and said, 'We can talk,' there wouldn't be a lawsuit."

WVU has wrongly scaled down what was intended to be a public forum and has given administrators too much discretion to prevent protests, the lawsuit alleges.

Besides creating a cumbersome and unnecessary reservation process for large groups, the policy contains terminology that would make compliance all but impossible, the lawsuit says.

One provision bars demonstrators from "attempting by repeated demands ... to coerce individuals into stopping or participating in a debate or discussion, or accepting materials."

"These terms are neither self-defining nor patently unambiguous," the lawsuit charges. "Their vagueness and ambiguity preclude an individual of ordinary intelligence from apprehending what conduct is forbidden by the policy and conforming his/her conduct."

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 policy has been revised, but the administration has resisted wiping it off the books, and the Faculty Senate endorsed it last month. Hardesty and a lawyer are now reviewing it.

Supporters of the free-speech zones say the right of the public to gather and demonstrate must be balanced against the need for a quiet academic environment.

But many areas traditionally considered appropriate for public expression are now suddenly off limits, including the Mountainlair and other main campus buildings, and the offices of the student newspaper, The Daily Athenaeum.

With the designated public assembly areas, black students cannot gather in front of the Center for Black Culture and Research to protest racism or support affirmative action.

"They have to protest by the football field," Whitehead said. "That's where we think the policy is just totally irrational and overbroad. Why not? Why can't they protest at the Center for Black Culture?"

The Animal Rights Coalition, opposed to using animals for research, cannot picket near the research labs or most areas around the Health Sciences Center.

And the Students for Economic Justice cannot picket recruiters or protest corporate globalization near the business and economics building.

"There's just no overriding governmental interest here," Whitehead said. "It's really not a 'free-speech policy.' It's a restriction policy.”

Update

West Virginia University adopts watered-down free-speech rules
But divided Board of Governors eliminates requirement that large groups gather in designated campus protest zones.  11.11.02

Previous

Students stage mock funeral to protest proposed free-speech zones
Rutherford Institute says it will file lawsuit challenging West Virginia University policy.  05.14.02