Public Institutions are no longer allowed to restrict students on the time, place and manner of student speech by the use of “Free Speech Zones,” according to a bill signed by Governor Terry McAuliffe, effective July 1, 2014.
“A student complained about an issue at a certain college to Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, who is very much into making sure everyone abides by the constitution,” said Brenda Atkins, vice president for Commonwealth Relations. This is where the process to abolish “Free Speech Zones” began.
According to Atkins, none of the institutions were opposed to the change because it went through the higher education sub committees.
“We can still impose some restrictions,” said Atkins. “But they can no longer impose restrictions on time, place or manner of student speech according [to] the bill.”
Even though this is a big change for the state, it is not that drastic of a change for Longwood University. According to Dr. Tim Pierson, vice president for Student Affairs, the university has not had many free speech issues; Longwood students are very open to hearing one another.
“The reason these rules were in place were for outside groups … along Brock Commons [and] in all of the academic buildings [was] because it would be a disruption to students in classrooms, as well as making it difficult getting up and down Brock Commons,” said Atkins.
She continued, “It leaves enough flexibility while giving the students a little bit more freedom, too.”
Chief of Longwood University Police Department Bob Beach has never felt this to be a huge issue on campus.
“One group came to talk about abortion and the Police Department found out from state police,” said Beach. “Their intent was to storm the campus, so we reached out to the protesters and set them up a place behind [Lankford] Student Union.”
Historically, it became the known free speech area, according to Beach.
According to Pierson, the place behind the Student Union is mainly to accommodate outside groups, such as vendors. “It is still a main thoroughfare on campus; it just doesn’t interfere with academic work,” said Pierson.
Having big events behind the Student Union is due to the fact that it is the best place for them because it’s one of the largest open spaces on campus. This is by no means to hide any such events.
“We have policies about the use of space on campus. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech,” said Beach. “It has to do with the appropriate function of the university to keep it a quality learning and residential environment.”
“My understanding of the legislation isn’t that much different from what we already do,” said Beach. “The university is sensitive to these issues, but part of the university experience is sharing ideas and thoughts.”
“For our Speech Policy here, any student organization who wants to speak out can really do that anywhere,” said Pierson.
The Student Government Association (SGA) is even holding their business meeting on Brock Commons, according to Pierson.
“Students shouldn’t have a problem booking a space or setting a table up and wanting to bring attention anywhere,” said Pierson. “As long as the flow of on-campus activities is not disrupted, students should have no problem.”
“My position from the police department is this: I don’t care how controversial it is,” said Beach. “As long as its intent is not to insight or to cause injury to people, then they have the right to do it. That’s what the 1st amendment is all about.”
According to Beach, it’s his job to make sure that people’s rights are protected so they can carry it out in a safe manner. “They have to understand that there are people with a different opinion and they may want to be there and tell their opinion; they have every right to do that too,” said Beach.
“If we found out there was going to be a highly controversial issue, I might have to ask them to reschedule it for another day so that I can pull together my resources to ensure their speech can be put on safely,” said Beach. “People do need to understand if they bring toward a very inflammatory event, their right to do that is constitutionally protected, but the new bill makes it so we can help it be accomplished successfully.”
According to Pierson, the difference here is clarifying, especially for student groups, that if students want to have a debate or want to raise an issue about tuition, there wouldn’t be any problem with that.
