c/campus-speech-wars

12

price.ben•22h ago

My campus charges $350 for a free speech permit - then rejected me anyway

I wanted to host a small table in the student union plaza last Tuesday to talk about housing rights in our city. Turns out my school requires a permit for any expressive activity in that area, even just standing with a sign. The permit fee is $350 for a 4 hour slot. I paid it, showed up, and a security guard told me my topic was 'too divisive' and kicked me out after 30 minutes. Found out later from a student newspaper article that the policy was written 5 years ago after a protest about the dean's salary got out of hand. Has anyone else run into these crazy permit fees at their campus?

14

dylan_brown30•1d ago

Paid $200 for a campus free speech zone permit. Denied 3 hours later.

Applied for a guest speaker slot at State U. They took my money, then said my topic was too controversial. Didn't even get a refund. Anyone else have the admin pull something shady with event fees?

7

the_drew•3d ago

My poli sci prof said shouting down a speaker is a form of speech too, then campus security showed up

Last semester at UT Austin, I had this professor who always said silencing opposing views is just another kind of debate tactic. So during a protest where some guy from Turning Point USA was speaking, I stood in front of the podium and just stared at him for 2 minutes straight. Campus police grabbed me and I got a warning, but my prof actually laughed and said 'told you so.' Has anyone else gotten away with something weird on campus because a professor backed your play?

17

smith.parker•4d ago

The time my poli sci professor told me to 'just ignore the protestors' and it backfired hard

So last semester at UT Austin, there was this big walkout over the Israel-Palestine thing. My professor, Dr. Henderson, straight up told me in office hours to just put my headphones in and walk through the crowd, said it was the 'adult' thing to do. I tried it. Got surrounded by like 20 people yelling in my face, one kid knocked my coffee out of my hand. Security had to pull me out. Professor acted like I did something wrong. Anyone else get advice from faculty that turned out to be terrible?

14

samflores•7d ago

Free speech club vanished after 2 years of being ignored

I was part of the Free Speech Coalition at UC Davis back in 2022 and we had 40 members tabling every week. Now I checked last month and the group is down to 6 people who barely meet. The administration started requiring 2 faculty advisors and a $500 insurance fee for any event with a speaker. Has anyone else seen their campus free speech groups shrink like this?

15

pat781•8d ago

Showerthought: I dropped $300 on a 'free speech' speaker series that never happened

Back in 2019 at my community college in Boise, I paid $300 out of pocket to reserve a room and print flyers for a speaker series about campus free speech debates. The college canceled it three days before because of 'security concerns' and refused to refund the deposit. The flyers are still in my garage. Has anyone else lost money trying to organize something on campus that got shut down at the last minute?

10

christopherw34•9d ago

Remember that week in 2017 when Milo Yiannopoulos came to Berkeley?

I was a junior at UC Berkeley when they announced his talk and the whole campus turned into a fortress overnight. Barricades everywhere, protestors on both sides screaming at each other, and I just wanted to get to my 10 AM sociology class. Did anyone else deal with a speaker visit that completely shut down normal campus life for days?

7

the_sam•10d ago

Counter-protestor yelled at me for filming during a free speech rally at UC Berkeley last spring

I was standing 30 feet back with my phone out and a guy grabbed my arm saying I was 'provoking them,' so I just motioned toward the posted ACLU guidelines on my screen and he backed off, has anyone else had trouble just documenting stuff without getting hassled?

20

willowg88•11d ago

The 300 person protest that made me switch sides on campus speaker bans

I used to be all for kicking controversial speakers off campus, thinking it protected students. Then I covered a Milo Yiannopoulos event at Ohio State last fall as part of my delivery route, and 300 people showed up to counter-protest peacefully. Watching them drown out his message with chants and signs instead of violence just clicked for me. Why do we assume banning someone is stronger than letting the crowd respond with their own speech?

30

the_susan•12d ago

That student who shouted me down in the library last week still bothers me

I was sitting in the campus library on Tuesday, just reading a book on historical free speech cases for my poli sci class. A girl I'd never seen before walked up to my table, saw the cover, and said that book was "harmful" because it included quotes from people who held racist views 100 years ago. She told me I should only read materials that "uplift marginalized voices" and that engaging with old arguments was a waste of time. I tried to explain that understanding bad ideas is how we learn to counter them, but she cut me off and said I was part of the problem. She walked away before I could even finish my sentence, and I just sat there feeling like I'd done something wrong for wanting to learn. Has anyone else had a situation where a single student decided what you could read or study?

12

river952•12d ago

Warning: That admin who told me to 'just ignore the protestors' made it way worse

My dean at Ohio State told me last Tuesday to walk right through the Gaza solidarity encampment and pretend they weren't there. Got caught on a livestream looking like a total jerk, and now I have 200 angry emails in my inbox. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from administrators about how to handle campus protests?

8

grant478•15d ago

Had to choose between confronting a heckler at a campus speaker event or just leaving

At UW Madison last week, this guy kept shouting over a panel about immigration policy. I was sitting there thinking should I say something to shut him down or just walk out like everyone else. I ended up staying and telling him to let the speaker finish, and he actually stopped for a bit. But then security had to step in anyway when he started up again. Has anyone else had to deal with hecklers at these things and found a way that actually works?

12

irisowens•1mo ago

Question about the free speech zone rules at my college

My school made us sign a permit just to hand out flyers on the quad last week, which I thought was overkill, but a professor told me it's to prevent shout-downs. Is that actually legit or just a way to shut people up before they start?

11

king.eric•1mo ago

Paid $45 for a campus free speech rally ticket that got canceled 2 hours before start

Signed up for what looked like a big debate at UCLA about trigger warnings, but the organizers bailed last minute and nobody refunded us. Anyone else get burned by these pop-up protest events that vanish before they even happen?

2

adams.uma•1mo ago

Back in 2019 I used to just post whatever on campus forums without thinking

Back in 2019 I used to just post whatever I was angry about on the campus message boards without checking facts first. Last semester I got called out in front of 50 students for sharing a misleading flyer about a guest speaker. Now I always run posts past a friend first has anyone else had to change how they speak up on campus?

5

king.val•1mo ago

Showerthought: That $75 protest sign was a total waste of money

I spent 75 bucks on a giant custom printed banner for the campus free speech rally last month. The ink ran in the drizzle after 20 minutes and the cardboard backing got all soggy and fell apart. Meanwhile this kid next to me had a sign made from a pizza box and sharpie that lasted the whole 3 hours. Has anyone else found a cheap sign material that actually holds up in bad weather?

11

nelson.vera•1mo ago

That professor who tried to shut down a debate I was holding on the quad

I was tabling for a free speech group last fall at Ohio State. One professor walked up, told me my flyer was 'harmful rhetoric,' and literally tried to take it out of my hand. She stood there for 10 minutes arguing that my right to speak ended where her feelings started. Has anyone else had faculty try to physically remove your materials?

3

emeryj66•1mo ago

Pro tip: counter protests don't always have to be loud to be effective

I stood at a counter protest last month at the University of Michigan where a guy was yelling about immigration with a megaphone. Instead of shouting back, a group of students just stood quietly holding fact sheets about refugee resettlement numbers and handed them to anyone who walked past. The yelling guy got frustrated after 20 minutes because nobody was engaging with his anger. Has anyone else tried a quiet approach at a campus speech event and seen it work better than confrontation?

17

murphy.tessa•1mo ago

Dropped $200 on a guest speaker permit that campus admin rejected anyway

Booked a controversial speaker for our free speech event, paid the $200 facility fee and permit deposit, then the dean denied it citing 'security concerns' the day before, so has anyone else lost cash on these admin hurdles?

3

pat_stone•1mo ago

Just checked the campus speech policy and it bans 47 specific phrases I didn't know about

I hit the 47 mark counting banned phrases in our student handbook and one of them is 'safe space' which feels like it defeats the whole point of having a discussion group, has anyone else actually sat down and counted what's on their own campus list?

15

river952•1mo ago

The worst week I saw at State College was when the provost banned a speaker and then walked it back 48 hours later

Students had already organized two dueling protests and local news showed up, then the administration folded and the whole thing left everyone more angry than before - has anyone else had a campus ban reverse like that and did it calm things down or make it worse?

35

alicecraig•1mo ago

That one week when the free speech rally turned into a screaming match over nothing

Last Tuesday at State U, there was this big free speech event on the quad where two student groups were supposed to debate campus funding. It started fine, people holding signs and talking, but by Wednesday it fell apart hard. A guy from the Young Americans group yelled at a girl from the student council for like 20 minutes straight about how her group was 'censoring' him. Then someone threw a cup of coffee at a microphone stand and security had to step in. The whole thing was supposed to be about ideas, but it just became a shouting fest with no real discussion. By Friday, the dean had to cancel the rest of the week's events because nobody could agree on basic ground rules. Has anyone else seen a supposedly free speech event totally derail like that? I'm curious if it's just this campus.

29

sean854•1mo ago

Had a moment last fall where I realized I was the problem during a debate

I was at a speak-out in the student union at UMass Amherst back in October, arguing with a guy about a professor who got banned from campus events. I kept cutting him off, thinking I was defending free speech, but then he just looked at me and said 'you're not listening, you're just waiting to talk.' That hit me hard because I'd been doing that for years, treating every conversation like a contest. Has anyone else had that wake-up call where you saw your own behavior differently?

4

amy_west•1mo ago

The week a conservative speaker came to campus and the protest actually stayed civil

Back in October 2019 when Ben Shapiro visited UC Davis, I expected chaos but instead saw students line up to ask real questions and the loudest disruption was just a group singing 'Let It Go' for 90 seconds.

3

valc91•1mo ago

The day a student reporter got shouted down during Q&A at our speaker event

Last semester we brought a controversial commentator to campus and a kid from the student paper tried to ask a follow-up about a funding claim, but three people in the front row just drowned him out with chants for a solid two minutes. The moderator did nothing, and the speaker just stood there smirking. Has anyone else seen a Q&A segment basically get hijacked like that?