The publicly funded University of Arkansas holds a yellow light speech code rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
A “yellow light” institution is one “whose policies restrict a more limited amount of protected expression or, by virtue of their vague wording, could too easily be used to restrict protected expression.”
The university’s policy 708: Use of University Facilities and Outdoor Spaces states that student reservations must be made through a registered student organization with the prior approval of a faculty or staff adviser. Furthermore, those requesting a reservation of an outdoor university facility or space must complete a reservation form and submit the form to Facilities Management or the office responsible for the location to be used.
Students are also expected to contact the campus police department at least three business days prior to an event that may have 500 or more people in attendance, or if a university official arbitrarily requests a security assessment. The qualification that students must submit to a three-day process of approval, simply because a university official believes the event needs to be assessed, places too much power in the hands of administrators.
“The language you are inquiring about has been included in the University’s policy on Use of University Facilities and Outdoor Space since 2001,” Assistant Vice Chancellor of University Relations, Mark Rushing, told Red Alert Politics. “The provision is designed to foster the safe and orderly use of University property including working to avoid disrupting classes and is not intended to hinder student expressive activity.”
Students at the University of Arkansas say they are not adhering to the policy, however.
“I have helped YAL with three Free Speech Ball events and they were all impromptu. We even had the University Police come up and sign it, clearly seeing us violate the policy,” Drake Hamilton, President of Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Arkansas, told Red Alert Politics. “So, not only do I believe we should be able to [hold impromptu events], we are actively doing it.”
Students’ rights to assemble and express themselves should not be left to the discretion of administration because it gives the administration power to deny students their rights. The multi-layered filtration process that student groups must go through in order to hold an event is a violation of students’ First Amendment rights.
The University of Arkansas does hold a number of green light policies. One such policy in the Student Handbook affirms the school’s commitment to the idea that free expression is central to the mission of a great college, stating that a great university is “a seedbed of change in an ever-changing society. An academic community grows only when its members may act and express themselves freely and without fear.”
“I’m not sure what is more troubling, the audacity of the university ‘granting students a right that is already guaranteed in the Constitution’ or the fact the policy contradicts itself, considering that students must reserve the only area for free speech on campus in order to engage in events,” Young Americans for Liberty Director of Free Speech Alexander Staudt told Red Alert Politics.
The University of Arkansas hits the nail on the head when it comes to the purpose of a university, but fails to manifest that view in practice. Placing a three-day delay on students’ rights does not fit in with their own mission of a great university, and fits even less so within the parameters of the United States Constitution.
