New guidelines for freedom of expression spark debate about expression on campus

Some students have expressed concern that campus activism and free speech are experiencing a chilling effect following the university’s updated guidelines for free speech announced early this school year.

The university announced a set of free speech guidelines in September detailing what is allowed during demonstrations on campus, following a tumultuous year of protests and counter-protests over the war between Israel and Gaza.

Several faculty members have expressed support for the guideline, calling it a proactive measure. The new guidelines, introduced in September by Provost Jenny Martinez and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Michele Rasmussen, outlined several points, including advance registration of large events, designated outdoor areas for gatherings, identification and masking guidelines and an emphasis on the neutrality of the policy.

“The rules are not there to protect students,” said Yungsu Kim ’25, a member of the Stanford Asian American Action Committee (SAAAC). “The rules are there to protect Stanford because Stanford is deeply, deeply afraid of what students were able to do last year.”

Kim also expressed concern that the statement’s guidelines “weren’t really created with student input.”

Only two major demonstrations have been held since the start of the quarter on September 23.

During the last academic school year, community members – including students and teachers – organized several strikes in response to the war between Israel and Gaza. Students held a 120 day encampment at White Plaza and busy the president’s office in June — resulting in the arrest of 13 Stanford students, including a Daily reporter. These protests have called on the university to divest companies linked to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a proposal that the university rejected earlier this month, among other demands.

In combination with the guidelines, the University has issued a “Declaration on Freedom of Expression,” which was approved by the Faculty Senate.

According to Bernadette Meyler JD ’03, special advisor to Martinez, the Senate Ad Hoc Committee has been considering speech issues since the spring of 2023.

The Senate “heard from many individuals and groups a desire for a clear affirmation of the importance of free speech on campus,” Meyler wrote to The Daily.

She also wrote that the new freedom of expression website “is designed to clarify and simplify existing policies where possible, make clear and obvious any restrictions on speech, and expand the number of appropriate locations for large gatherings.”

Zoe Tweedie ’25, the ASSU director of Free Expression, said the statement “has both positive and negative consequences.”

Tweedie noted that White Plaza has been called a “free speech zone” in the past, which “falsely indicated” that free speech could only be expressed in that area. She was “very happy” that such language was removed because it represents “productive change” for the university’s policies.

However, Tweedie acknowledged that “if you put additional barriers or additional demands on freedom of expression, it can always end in chilling expression.”

As community reactions to the declaration continue to unfold, Kim said student protests in support of community spaces, such as the Asian American Activity Center, El Centro and ethnic theme houses, are critical to “creating a more equitable campus.”

“It is our job and our obligation to encourage the university,” Kim said. “We can’t sit here and wait for the rules to relax or change, or for Stanford to become more lenient. We have to fight actively.”

University President Jonathan Levin ’94 said in an interview with The Daily on Friday that the new policy has the potential for clarification in a few places, including around chalking.

“The rules were designed with the intention of addressing dissent, and hopefully they will do that well over time,” Levin said. “They have to stand the test of time.”

Russell Berman, Walter A. Haas Professor of Humanities, told The Daily that he considered the statement “part reactive and part wisely proactive” to ensure community members are not going about their daily business. , necessary movement disturbed.

He was referring to the protests at Columbia and UCLA pulled responses from the police and ended in canceling the start of the first.

“The university is acting proactively to ensure that all community members are not prohibited or prevented from having their legitimate movement on campus,” he said.

Under the updated policy, events with expected attendance of more than 100 people will require prior registration and approval in designated “outdoor event areas,” adjacent to White Plaza, where registration is still “strongly encouraged.”

Kim also argued that “it’s not just people involved in political activism who are affected by this policy,” as all Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs) “now have to jump through these bureaucratic loopholes.”

“All Stanford does is make it exceptionally harder for people, for people to do what they’ve always done, which is create a community without a Stanford government,” Kim said.