OPINION: UGA, your promise to protect First Amendment rights is not enough – Red and Black

A promise from a university to protect students rights is endearing but, unless codified, is ultimately worthless.

The University of Georgia finds itself in a paradoxical position in terms of its policy concerning free speech. On UGAs freedom of expression webpage, the header boasts that, no rights are more highly regarded at the University of Georgia than the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and expression. Yet, further examination of UGAs policies governing posters on campus calls UGAs statement into question.

Per the flyer requirement and regulations laid out in thestudent organization manual, flyers posted in the Tate Student Center and Memorial Hall must be approved by the information desk or information desk supervisor. The policy broadly grants the information desk the right to deny any flyers, ads, brochures, etc., without content and viewpoint-neutral guidelines for what would compel poster denial. In plainer terms, a poster could be denied for any reason, including because the information desk simply dislikes its message.

A warning on one of the bulletin boards in Tate Student Center that reads, "This board is maintained by the Tate Student Center Information Desk. All flyers on this board must be approved by the Tate Student Center Information Desk."

Other campus policies require similar administrative approval for posting flyers, including the non-commercial solicitation policy and university housings bulletin policy.Not only does no central policy exist in reference to bulletin boards,aUGA spokesperson was unable to confirm if there are any places on campus where students, faculty or other members of the UGA community can post flyers without needing to ask permission.

For these reasons, UGA received a yellow light rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Educations spotlight database. A yellow light indicates that a schools policies restrict a more limited amount of protected expression but according to FIRE by virtue of vague wording, can too easily be used to restrict protected expression.

FIREs spotlight database documents numerous instances of universities paying lip service to their commitment to First Amendment rights while quietly continuing to enforce policies that detract from those rights.

We often see these types of posting schemes where administrators want to be able to regulate indoor postings in a student union or what have you, but this is overly restrictive in trying to accomplish that goal, and it subjects all postings to an approval process, said Mary Zoeller, a senior program officer in FIREs policy reform department.

In reference to the posting policy in UGAs student organization manual, Zoeller said the restrictions would likely not be considered reasonable under the First Amendment.

To improve this policy and others governing posting space on campus, it is imperative that administrators revise language to include content and viewpoint-neutral guidelines for administrative approvals, such as size and timeliness of posters and permitting students to post freely somewhere on campus.

Anything less fails the promise UGA makes to its students and compromises their First Amendment rights.

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OPINION: UGA, your promise to protect First Amendment rights is not enough - Red and Black