A group of Longwood University students are pushing for the addition of a free speech wall on campus by the end of the spring 2012 school year. Senior Sarah Adams has been at the forefront of making the push for the free speech wall on campus. Adams said, "The idea came from my internship with Dos Passos during my junior year."
The John Dos Pasos is a journal published out of Longwood and is also a prize given once a year to a novelist. Passos was a social writer who graduated from Harvard. Adams spearheaded a trial free speech wall last November. Adams said, "It was a big hit with the Student Government Association [SGA] and they really liked the idea of it." The trial free speech wall was set up behind the Lankford Student Union in what is already designated as a free speech area on campus.
During the trial, anyone who walked by the free speech wall had the chance to come up to the double-sided white board and write about whatever they felt they needed to say that day. One side of the board was specifically for people to write about anything. The other side of the board had controversial questions on it to get people's opinions. Some questions were focused on stem cell research, religion and gay marriage.
Adams has taken her concept to the SGA for review to see if having a free speech wall is the right step for the campus. SGA Representative and Programming Chair for the Student Diversity and Inclusion Counsel Shawn Gaines said, "We have referred Adams to a committee so that we could come up with a solid idea and get a firm grasp of what it is we really want for a free speech wall." Adams said, "I am gathering support from individuals in the SGA, the president and the student body"
There are many places the wall could be placed and set up. Adams said, "I was looking at other places that have free speech walls and one of those is a mall in Charlottesville. The mall area is where they have a huge chalk board set with trays of chalk set so that people can come up and write what they want, and at the end of every week, whoever is monitoring the wall washes it and gives everyone a clean slate to write on."
A big concern revolving around the use of a free speech wall is how hate speech would be tolerated. Hate speech is any communication that disparages a person or a group of individuals on the basis of some characteristic such as ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation, etc. Adams said, "If someone were to write some kind of hate speech, I would hope that someone would erase it or respond to it."
Assistant Professor of English Dr. Kristen Welch said, "My biggest concern is hate speech and how that will be seen by others; if we are allowing students to have a free speech wall, will any hate speech be seen as something that the university believes in? It would be like putting a big T-shirt on with the hate speech printed on it."
Adams responded, "I would hope that what one student thinks would not embody what the student body or the school thinks."
Gaines, speaking for the SGA, said, "If hate speech were to occur, it would simply be erased and that was the only solution that was voiced." He added, "In the event that hate speech is written, we do not provide the opportunity for that to be rectified, and if there is something written which, inevitably there will be something written, we need to have someone on call to address that issue."
Gains said, "This will just lead to more hate speech and defeat the purpose of the free speech wall and will not be productive to the campus community. By the end of this semester we should have some leeway as to what we want to do."
The committee will review the free speech wall in the upcoming weeks and will hopefully have a plan for the wall in upcoming months.
