Lawsuits, debate intensify over university 'free speech zones'

The battle over controversial “free speech zones” on
public university campuses continues to gather momentum as the
lawsuits against the widely used zones multiply across the
nation.

Several universities from Florida to Texas have encountered
legal trouble as student groups, joined by national rights
advocation organizations, claim that limiting demonstration to
specific zones infringes on First Amendment rights.

Free speech zones are carefully drawn out areas where students
or groups can hold rallies. Depending on the campus, administration
allows varying amounts of demonstration outside these areas.

The main argument behind the policy is that noisy protest can
disturb classes in session on campus.

Debate is centering on West Virginia University, where student
groups have sought to repeal a policy that even prohibits passing
out pamphlets and carrying signposts outside designated zones.

Matthew Poe, a fourth-year WVU political science student, was
confronted by campus police after he had been distributing flyers
outside a free speech zone in October 2001.

Ensuing challenges to the policy failed to have any effect, so
Poe finally decided to seek legal action in June this year to have
the rule overturned, with help from the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education .

“I think America is a free speech zone, and the university
has no business restricting it,” he said. “Rather, the
university has a moral responsibility to endorse it.”

Poe suggested the reasoning behind the law was a thinly veiled
excuse “to stop campuses from becoming confrontational, like
UC Berkeley.”

He said the lawsuit, still under way, could set a precedent and
help repeal similar policies at all public institutions
nationwide.

UCLA is one of those public institutions with a free speech zone
policy, although it is less far-reaching than those at other
universities.

Groups wishing to make speeches using amplification devices must
speak between 11:50 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Meyerhoff Park.

Pamphlet distribution, signposts displays and general protest
can take place anywhere on campus.

Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming,
said the restrictions do not infringe on students’ rights to
voice their opinions.

“There is no restriction on free speech as people can
voice their opinion anywhere on campus,” he said. “The
only thing is they can’t make use of amplifying devices, like
bull horns, as those could disrupt class.”

According to Rob Hennig, lecturer for the political science
department, these restrictions are constitutional because they
reasonably dictate time, place and manner as opposed to content of
speech.

“The university has the right to impose reasonable
restriction if (the free speech) impedes their mission,” he
said. “A court would look at the reasons and rationale behind
restrictions, and then determine whether they are fair.”

Still, Hennig suggested the restrictions could be loosened to
allow demonstrations to occur after hours and on weekends.

Other universities have faced legal action for free speech zone
policies, including the University of Houston, which refused to
grant an anti-abortion campus group the right to display large
graphic billboards of dead foetuses on the campus plaza in Nov.
2001.

UH administration said Butler Plaza, the center of campus, was
not one of the four designated free speech zones on campus.

Sheree Tullos, chairman of Pro-Life Cougars, said administration
denied use of the plaza even though university sponsored events
always take place there.

“The university just didn’t like our displays and
wanted to put us on a far corner of campus,” she said.
“But you can’t take a part of a public campus and say
you can’t speak there; it’s
unconstitutional.”

In the lawsuit that followed, District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr.
granted a preliminary injunction that designated the campus plaza
as a public forum.

The injunction also objected to prior restraint, the practice of
disallowing some demonstrations before they took place if they were
deemed too inappropriate.

Elsewhere, 30 Florida State University students were arrested in
May after they refused to move their anti-sweatshop protest to a
designated free speech zone.

In February, pressure from students and faculty forced the
administration at the University of Wisconsin ““ White Water,
to repeal a free speech zone policy in place on the campus.

Both the WVU and the UH lawsuits, still under way, have the
potential to be landmark cases in this debate. This controversy is
far from over.