Students and groups on campus are required to get all fliers "approved for posting" before they are tacked onto the bulletin boards. However, when I was observing some of the boards, I noticed that some (mostly from DSUSA) don't have the stamp that says it has been approved. Why do they get away with it when others have to jump through all the hoops?
To me, it's obvious that our free speech is restricted and the university wants us to be exposed to certain things and others, not so much.
For Diversity Week, the Gay Straight Alliance club had three canvases circulating around campus all week where students could write whatever they wanted. It was a free speech exercise. While this is a great initiative, more can be done. I attended the University of Utah for a year and in front of the library, an extremely popular and well-trafficked area, there were semi-permanent chalk board like structures where students could exercise free speech anytime they wanted. There was chalk provided, and there were very interesting things written! Compared to the three, comparatively small canvases that were displayed at DSU for only a week, the U of U chalkboard seemed to be more effective because there seemed to be more freedom.
The canvases are now stored on the ground, in the MCDC, in a corner, and in a storage room.
How I wish you presented this in class. Great story.
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