Public Discourse: Student activities director responds

Dear GC&SU Community:

I would like for the University community to know that while Student Activities is the enforcers of the advertising policy, we are not the creators of the policy. The policy is a University policy and is based on community standards (i.e. GC&SU standards). The development of these standards is a history of what the University community finds offensive or inappropriate.

For example: If pornography is covered with a warning sign, I would receive a flood of complaints from members of this community who would find the material offensive or inappropriate for this community. I would also hear an outcry from our parents on campus who are faculty/staff and who would be concerned about their children coming on campus and seeing these materials (open access). In addition, matters of a hostile work environment could arise along with a litany of other legal matters. While the policy is limiting, it does not eliminate other appropriate means of expression deemed by the University community.

I applaud Mr. Fisher’s students for their work and totally support their right to freely express their opinions. However, the Board of Regents gives each institution the responsibility of formulating all rules and regulations related to their campus. See reference at bottom of page.

While Mr. Lunk is targeted in the article, he is just doing his job and doing it with my total support. We will not approve any fliers or posters related to “the big three”, until community standards change. There are multiple venues available to request a change in policy. For the record, over 99% of fliers and posters are approved so disapproval is rare. When Student Activities finds something questionable, we do take disapproving a flier or poster seriously. We will continue to make decisions based on feedback from our chain-of-command and the feedback received from this community.

Though after the fact, I do appreciate that Mr. Fisher e-mailed Mr. Lunk explaining the exhibit and why only Ron’s comments were highlighted. See e-mail below.

Through the student exhibit, I hope everyone learns that there are limits to the freedom of expression clause of the U.S. Constitution and that challenges should take place. I hope the students have a very successful exhibit and that much debate and discussion takes place. Take care.

Tom Miles

Director of Student Activities

Dear Ronald,

I recently posted a message to our announce list in which I made reference to your interview with April Reed in the Colonnade. I hope you will not take offense with my comments. They were not meant in any way to be critical of you or the very difficult job you have to do. From what I could tell in the article, you try to be very fair and believe in a common sense approach to approval of student fliers, giving as much latitude as you can.

I also know that in many cases you must do as you are instructed by your superiors or as previous policy dictates, as we all do. Our project simply began with the Colonnade article, which we felt to be an important and integral element to the exhibition, and therefore deserving mention in the exhibition announcement.

Sincerely,

Bill Fisher

Assistant Professor of Art

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 28 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry