Free speech policy petition surfaced on campus, students expressing concerns
With a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) state chair on campus collecting signatures for a free speech petition, students are talking about what USD’s free speech policy is.
Brandon Fokkema, Iowa state chair for YAL, said the organization is about promoting individual freedom, free markets and personal responsibility. YAL came to campus after reviewing USD’s free speech policies and the FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Freedom) report, which scored USD as a red light campus.
“One of our partners organizations is FIRE, and they gave USD a red light rating for their free speech policies on campus,” Fokkema said. “One of the things that is big at Young Americans for Liberty is to kind of go after these free speech policies and reform policies on campus.”
One policy that Fokkema said caught his attention about USD’s FIRE report was a section on solicitation.
“One of the policies was the solicitation policy in terms of having to get approval to handout information or even getting signatures even if you are a student on campus,” Fokkema said. “This is something the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional presumption of free speech on public universities, and that’s one of the policies we want to get changed.”
After petitioning this afternoon, Fokkema said he managed to collect 60-75 signatures. Fokkema said the goal of petitioning was to “enact some change on campus.”
“I think this petition is a good way to convince the university that the freedom to express different ideas is conducive to a learning environment on campus,” Fokkema said. “Whether ideas that you agree with, but also ideas that you disagree with, it’s good to hear both sides of it so you’re not stuck in an echo chamber.”
Parker Spitzer, a junior economics and strategic communications double major, said he spoke with Fokkema about his concerns toward free speech on campus.
“I’ve had multiple phone calls with Brandon,” Spitzer said. “We’ve been discussing the idea of what our free speech policy is on campus…we’ve had solid questions about what the policy really was and how to enforce it.”
After looking into the policy, a YAL chapter formed on campus.
Members of College Republicans are working with Kim Grieve, the dean of students, to discuss free speech policies and update the policies on the USD webpage.
Jaedon Foreman, a sophomore economics major and vice president of College Republicans, said what’s “disconcerting” with USD’s free speech policies are what the university defines as “freedom of speech” and their ability to censor certain content.
“Personally (what I) find most disconcerting is you can’t find the free speech policy right away on the website, it’s not on the quick links or anything,” Foreman said. “The university does not have its own free speech policy, it just adopts the BOR policy. What we have now is insufficient because we don’t know what is protected here at USD for our freedom of speech rights.”
