Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash
Provided to The Quill by Derek Dengler, Thomas Tang and Alexander Stone
To the Administration of SU: On the evening of Oct. 27th, we were instructed to remove our political signs from out front our 18th Street townhouses and were told we could not display them in any publicly viewable windows. This did not just affect us, but all residence halls on campus.
While it is perfectly clear that SU has full discretion in the policy to request removal of any outdoor decorations, having political decorations inside has no such limitations in the student handbook. We were further informed that this policy had always existed, but never strictly enforced. This was changed just recently due to “safety concerns” with houses/rooms potentially being targets during and after election night.
As the presidents of the SU Democrat’s Club, SU Republican’s Club, and Young Americans For Liberty, we cannot and will not accept such unjustifiable limitations on our rights to free speech. We stand united past the political divide to challenge and urge the administration to swiftly change its decision which, if left unaltered, could have harsh future consequences on our student free speech rights on campus.
According to the “Political Activity” section of the student handbook, it is prohibited to have or take part in any political activities that can be “construed as representing the university as a whole”. This includes “Endorsing, expressly or impliedly, a candidate for public office. Examples of endorsement include the placement of signs on university property that show support for a particular candidate”. In the exact same paragraph, however, this policy exempts students from this saying “the policy does not apply to students’ private rooms in residence halls, where individual political expression is permissible.” With this policy, it is evident that in a private setting, a student display is not reflecting the university policies. Furthermore, if the administration is still concerned, then a statement issued by the university affirming that “political displays in private residential windows are the views of the residence and not the university” is a solution to this matter.
Regarding displays in windows, what does the handbook state? The only other area of the handbook that has any relevance towards this is under the “Exterior of Houses, Apartments, and Townhouses” policy section. This policy states that “Nothing that is conspicuous, violation of any other policy, or in bad taste will be permitted on the visible exterior of the house at any time. This includes, but is not limited to, porches, yards, driveways and windows”. Under the definition of “conspicuous”, this can easily be applied to nearly all displays or decorations in windows. By the nature of a decoration, it is supposed to catch and draw your attention. Does that mean that any and all decorations and displays in private room windows now need to be removed? Degenstein currently displays a prominent Black Lives Matter banner, yet a student could not display the exact same message in their own window?
Finally, why have political displays been singled out? As we have mentioned, this has been done out of “safety concerns” for the upcoming election. We are all aware of the importance and divisiveness of this upcoming election and can reasonably expect extreme dissatisfaction from the losing party. It is also reasonable to prepare for agitators who might take their dissatisfactions too far and attempt to take their displeasures out on the winning candidate’s student supporters. These political displays would make for easy targets on these students. The administration should not back down to these individuals who wish to persecute students due to political grievances and should protect the students who properly and justly exercise their free speech rights. These individuals’ actions are an insult to the SU community and what this campus stands for. We are a student body of diverse thought and voice our concerns through discourse not through disgusting acts of targeted hatred. Silencing students is not a standard SU should adopt. The university’s actions could have a severely negative impact on future cases where students may become afraid to speak their political views at all under the fear of these individuals.
As representatives of the political community of SU, we hereby acknowledge the above statements. We request that the administration drastically reconsider its actions and allow for our students to display their political views in their private residential windows as part of their right to free speech on campus before and after the upcoming election.
Derek Dengler SU Republican’s Club: President
Thomas Tang SU Democrat’s Club: President
Alexander Stone Young American’s For Liberty: President
