The Towerlight, November 15, 2010

Monday, 11-15-10 Illustration by Robert Plater/ The Towerlight Campus free speech policy finalized JORDAN RUSSELL Assistant News Editor Students have a new set of guidelines to consult before express¬ ing their right to free speech on campus. The University implemented a Time, Place and Manner policy Oct. 28, which states its purpose is to bring structure to student events so that expressive activities do not disrupt University opera¬ tions, violate protected speech, endanger the safety of others or risk destruction of property. Deb Moriarty, vice president for student affairs, said there have always been polices related to the use of space on campus, but more students have started asking to hold different types of events relat¬ ed to free speech that the University hasn’t had experience with. Because no pre-existing policies covered everything that could have been a potential concern, the purpose of the new policy is to inform students where they can and cannot do certain activities. “For example, if someone tries to take over a classroom when that would interfere with coursework, we can say, 'No, you can’t do that because it interferes with the [academics] of the institution,”’ Teri Hall, associate vice president of campus life, said. Hall said a need for this new policy became evident nine years ago because of problems caused by a silent protest about 9/11. Some students who held a protest that claimed that the U.S. gov¬ ernment “got what it deserved" during the tragedy. As reported in The Towerlight on Sept. 17, 2001, an unnamed group of five or six protesters voiced their political statements about the recent terrorist attacks on America by writing mes¬ sages such as "U.S. sponsors terrorism too" in chalk throughout Towson’s campus. Hall said students who were connected to the New York and Washington, D.C. areas took great offense to the protest. "It was an interesting day," Hall said. "After that, we decided we needed to have some more specific guidelines. It never says to somebody what you can say or you can’t say. But it does have some limits on how you can say it that it might affect other people." According to The Towerlight article, one of the group members said their intention was to distribute information and knowledge, not to display hatred and anti-American messages. Despite their reasons, the TU Police Department was notified immediately. In 2001, TUPD chief of police, Bernie Gerst said, "Police time is valuable and we don’t want to take up time with cases that could be handled without police intervention. So we wanted to know what the policy was and how it handled it." See POLICY, page 10 8” Sub + Fries + Soda $7.99 2 MEDIUM 2 TOPPING PIZZAS $5.99 EACH 1540 YORK RD, LUTHERVILLE, MD 21093 ПН№, ©QiM еж ШШЮ 7EMBT8AWBBIC 410-823-8282 WWW.PIZZAB0LIS.COM