My friend got a formal warning for handing out flyers at UC Berkeley last month

He was just giving out info about a debate on Middle East policy, nothing graphic or violent. The campus police said he needed a permit from the student activities office three days in advance, which he didn't know about. This happened right outside the main library on a Tuesday afternoon. It feels like the rules are more about stopping speech than keeping order, you know? Has anyone else run into these permit issues at their school for just trying to talk to people?

4 comments

4 Comments

river9523mo ago

We got around that by just having people sign a petition instead.

pat_moore3mo ago

Didn't a court case recently say public universities can't do that?

the_wendy3mo ago

Yeah, that ruling is why our legal team told us to pause all new DEI statements last month.

sanchez.mary1mo ago

Oh man, that's exactly the kind of headache we ran into too. Our legal team basically said the same thing, but then HR tried to spin it as a "voluntary action item" instead of a statement, hoping nobody would notice. It's wild how companies are trying to play these games while the courts keep narrowing what's actually enforceable.