Arkansas Tech is getting rid of its “free speech zones” and restoring free speech restrictions thanks to complaints from conservative students, who reminded them that the school is bound to abide by the First Amendment.
The university’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to end its policy of having “free speech zones,” which were only enacted last September after a campus police officer forced the school’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter to confine their free speech event to one of the school’s two outdoor “free speech zones.”
The libertarian student group had organized a “free speech ball,” encouraging other students to write any message they wanted on a large inflatable ball. The students were prevented from bringing the free speech ball to more heavily-trafficked areas of campus, prompting them to protest for their rights and create a petition.
In a similar event at Oregon’s Linfield College, YAL members were denounced as “white supremacists” after someone drew Pepe the Frog on their “free speech ball.”
According to a report on Campus Reform on Tuesday, the fiasco in Arkansas prompted the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education (FIRE) to draft a letter criticizing the school for failing to uphold the Constitution. The school’s use of these areas was used to limit freedom of expression.
FIRE cited Supreme Court rulings that made it clear that the First Amendment has broad application to students on public university campuses like Arkansas Tech. As open public forums, colleges can only apply restrictions when they can demonstrate a “compelling interest” to do so.
Campus Reform states that two leading YAL members, Jason Hammons and Skyler Bowden, refused to accept the school’s explanation for restricting their rights and threatened legal action against the school unless it revised its policies — which it eventually did, last week.
“Colleges can’t pick and choose the most convenient place for their students to be engaged citizens,” said FIRE’s Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon. “We commend Arkansas Tech for working to make its campus a place where students can participate fully in public discourse.”
Hammons told Campus Reform on Tuesday that the policy change was positive news for the entire student body.
“We were able to restore First Amendment rights to over 12,000 students,” he said, adding that most students who signed the group’s petition were upset to hear about what their school was doing to restrict speech. “I seriously think we were the only group to step outside of the [free speech] zone for an event.”
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.