The University of South Alabama, a public college in Mobile, holds a yellow speech code rating, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s campus free speech rating system.
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.”
This rating comes from the University of South Alabama’s “Use of University Space, Facilities, and Grounds Policy” where they detail all of the areas in which students and faculty may not freely express themselves. Among the restricted areas are public sidewalks and any area within 100 feet of an academic or residential building.
“Free speech is seriously limited on our campus,” Keegan Robinson, president for the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at the University of South Alabama, told Red Alert Politics. “We should be able to actively express ourselves anywhere on campus. The administration arbitrarily enforces these rules whenever they feel like it.”
Additionally, while students are not required to register their events ahead of time, priority for the use of space is given to those who register their events with the director of the Student Center.
Students’ rights to freedom of expression are also limited when it comes to the posting and distribution of literature. Students are required to have all their posters reviewed by the Student Center before they can be hung up. Policy also authorizes the removal of any materials that are not reviewed. Furthermore, only 50 posters can be hung up per student organization, and there can only be one poster per bulletin board.
“An administration that is so hell bent on stifling free speech like the University of South Alabama makes me laugh,” Alexander Staudt, YAL’s director of free speech, told Red Alert Politics. “They have no business telling students that they have to register their ‘speech’ before they can be active on campus.”
The school claims to value the rights of students in its student conduct policy, but long as these policies are on the books, students at the University of Southern Alabama are subject to having their rights violated via administrative overreach.
The University of South Alabama did not respond request for comment by the time of publication.
