Students' Freedom Of Speech Contested

Last week, posters from a political science class exercise were torn down across campus. The class, entitled "Government and Politics in Contemporary China," is taught by Professor Patricia Thornton, and engages in a role playing activity, which includes displaying posters on campus promoting communism and denouncing capitalism.

The removal of the posters has raised questions on campus by Professor Thornton, and her students. The issue that is raised by this incident is the fact that the College has no academic freedom policy for students.

While the faculty does have a set of guidelines protecting their rights, academic freedom for students has not been established, or defined by the administration or the Committee for Academic Freedom. "Before this situation, I had no idea that students on campus were not formally guaranteed protection under free speech legislation; nor did I realize that students pay however many tens of thousands of dollars a year to the institution without being guaranteed a well-defined and clear right to academic freedom," said Thornton.

On October 26, the class was instructed by Thornton to hang posters around campus concerning the current topic of the course, the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution. Posters denounced the campus bookstore, and the Marriott Corporation, by referring to them as "following the capitalist world" and "oppressing the proletariat." The Dean of Students Office contacted Thornton, and asked her to send a quick-post email to the campus to alleviate concerns and complaints received from the Trinity community. They also told her that she should have cleared the posters with the Office before they were posted, and that the posters should have student names and extensions attached to the bottoms. By the following Monday morning, the posters had been stripped from their locations along the Long Walk. However it is not solely the removal of the posters that most upsets Thornton.

"The poster incident in and of itself is not that important. What is central here, I think, is that it raises questions about the rights of Trinity students." Erica Scherzer '00, a student in Politics and Government in Contemporary China has complaints similar to those of Professor Thornton's. "What if these issues were really important to us, and not just a role playing exercise? It appears that the school will not stand up for what we believe," said Scherzer.

Scherzer reports confronting the Dean of Students Office concerning this matter, and not receiving a response, or a formal statement regarding the removal of the posters. "The Dean of Students Office did not really seem to care about the issue. We need a clear policy, so we have something to defend us."

Professor George Higgins, the chairman of the Academic Freedom Committee on campus, states that an academic freedom policy for students has not been formed for a number of reasons. "Adopting an academic freedom policy on campus for students takes a lot of work, and many hours. It's not something that can happen in one afternoon," said Higgins.

Higgins does state however that he would be in support of creating such a policy for students, but he doubts that student interest would be high enough to facilitate the policy's creation. "I approach student body president almost every year, and ask if he or she would be interested in creating an Academic Freedom Policy for students. To this date, there has been no widespread interest on the part of the student body," said Higgins. The issue of Academic Freedom was raised on campus in 1989, when a group of students invited a speaker from the Nation of Islam to lecture on campus. There was a question on the part of the administration and faculty whether or not to allow such a controversial speaker on campus, but following discussion, the administration permitted the speaker.

That year, Professor Higgins suggested that the Committee on Academic Freedom look into the issue of academic freedom for students, however, the Committee never took any actions. "It was a very busy year for the faculty on the committee, and the students showed zero interest. One administrator in 1989 viewed Academic Freedom for students as a vexing issue, one that should be put off for some time." The American Association of University Professors does publish an academic policy that pertains to students, but Higgins reports that since it is aimed at universities and colleges across the country, it would be difficult to rework the policy according to Trinity's specific characteristics.

Professors on campus do have an elaborate Academic Freedom policy that allows free and unrestricted research and publication, freedom in discussing subjects in class relating to the course subject, and freedom from institutional censorship as an outside citizen. This policy was created in the 1940's, when college and university professors were being censored by their institutions.

Vice President of Student Services Sharon Herzberger believes that an academic freedom policy for students could be beneficial. "I believe it would be worthwhile on the part of the students to look into whether or not an academic freedom policy would benefit the student body." She does believe, concurring with Professor Higgins, that the process would be difficult, time consuming, and would raise controversial issues.

Adrienne Fulco, Political Science Professor, believes that academic freedom is an important aspect of college life. "I view academic freedom as a principle that underlies everything we do here at Trinity. A clearly stated policy on academic freedom would be of great value to the students, because the rules of the game would be clear to everyone." While no Academic Freedom Statement pertains to students at Trinity College today, Professor Higgins does state that if a student makes a formal complaint concerning academic freedom against a professor or administrator, his committee will listen to and act upon the complaint.