http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5896/t/7002/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=809A culture of fear appears to be chilling expression at Bucknell University, where even the student newspaper fears a libel lawsuit from Associate Dean of Students Gerald W. Commerford if it were to print a critical advertisement from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). After Bucknell administrators misapplied and abused Bucknell'sSales and Solicitation and nondiscrimination policies last semester to shut down the Bucknell University Conservatives Club's (BUCC's) protests of affirmative action and President Obama's economic stimulus, the group turned to FIRE for help. Bucknell has expanded and hardened the language in its policies affecting such protests and still insists that "affirmative action bake sales" have no place in the public areas of the campus. FIRE now lists Bucknell as a Red Alert school, one of only six "worst of the worst" schools in America when it comes to student rights on campus.
Bucknell’s recent forays into censorship began on March 17, 2009, when BUCC members stood at Bucknell’s student center and passed out fake dollar bills with President Obama’s face on the front and the sentence “Obama’s stimulus plan makes your money as worthless as monopoly money” on the back. One hour into this symbolic protest, Bucknell administrator Judith L. Mickanis approached the students and told them that they were “busted,” that they were “soliciting” without prior approval, and that their activity was equivalent to handing out Bibles.
Bucknell’s misguided crusade against free expression continued on April 7, when administrators shut down BUCC’s “affirmative action bake sale” protest. About an hour into BUCC’s protest, Associate Dean of Students Gerald W. Commerford arrived and informed the students that he had the “opportunity” to shut down the sale because the prices they were charging were different (lower) than what they had listed on their event application. The students offered to change the prices on the spot, but Commerford refused and insisted that they close the event immediately and file another application for a later date.
Accordingly, BUCC members filed an application to hold the same event two weeks later, but were then told that they would have to obtain the permission of the Dean of Students to hold a “controversial” event. No such permission is required by Bucknell policy. When the students nevertheless attempted to get this special permission, Commerford rejected the request. In a recorded conversation, Commerford said that such a bake sale would violate Bucknell’s nondiscrimination policy, even with satirical recommended (not actual) pricing, and that the only event he would approve on the topic would be a debate in a different forum altogether. This novel restriction also does not exist among Bucknell’s official policies.
Since FIRE’s June 11 press release calling Bucknell to account, the university has hidden behind flimsy defenses that contradict their earlier actions. A letter from General Counsel Wayne Bromfield dated the same day as FIRE’s press release cited such implausible reasonsfor stopping the BUCC’s Affirmative Action sale as “traffic flow” and “safety.” Bromfield also stated that Bucknell was required to shut down the bake sale because allowing it to continue would be in violation of the university’s nondiscrimination policy, ignoring the obvious fact that the point of the bake sale is not to make a profit by charging different prices to students, but rather to protest what the group sees as racial discrimination in college admissions. Aside from being legally questionable, Bromfield’s letter flatly contradicts the video evidence of why the event was shut down, which was because the group was charging different prices than what it stated on its event application. Rather than admit fault, Bucknell has continued with this dishonest defense, and continued to chill student expression in doing so.
As of August 25, Bucknell thus joined five other schools on FIRE's Red Alert list of campus censors. The other schools on the list, highlighted in a full-page ad in the "America's Best Colleges" issue of U.S. News & World Report, are Brandeis University, Colorado College, Johns Hopkins University, Michigan State University, and Tufts University.
To make matters worse, Bucknell silently expanded and renamed its Sales and Solicitation policy over the summer as "Sales and Promotions," and it now ambiguously covers promotions that "promote ... causes" and does not clarify whether distributing protest literature, an American free-speech tradition which includes Thomas Paine's pivotal Common Sense and The Crisis, still requires prior permission. "In response to national criticism about its stifling of protest on campus, the university actually made its policies more restrictive and more clearly applicable to the BUCC. Bucknell's retrenchment against student speech in the face of criticism should concern all students and faculty at Bucknell," Kissel said "The new ‘promotions' policy remains utterly inconsistent with Bucknell's existing commitments to freedom of speech."
Tell Bucknell to stop inventing excuses and allow its students to enjoy the free speech right to which they have been explicitly promised! Edit the letter below and let Bucknell President Mitchell know that you will not tolerate these continued abuses of power.
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Topic: Conservative Student Group Silenced at Bucknell (Read 1085 times)