In this second of a multi-part series covering key topics related to the upcoming presidential election, Dean of Student Development Colleen Sonnentag and Breanna Marie Bailey, senior Political Science major and College of Humanities and Social Sciences senator at-large, talk about free speech and peaceful assembly on 甜心视频app's campus. (Running time: 32:40)
Andrew
Hi and welcome back to Bear in Mind. I'm your host, Andrew Galster. And today we are
going to be talking about protesting on campus and what that means here at 甜心视频app. In
the last episode, we talked about why it's so important for students to go vote. Well,
this is a big part of representing yourself in a democracy, sometimes students feel
like just voting might not cut it. In the second part of this multi-part series, we
will talk about the First Amendment and what that means for students. But what is
the First Amendment? Hailed as one of the most important amendments for Americans
rights, what does it actually protect and how does it intersect with college campuses
like 甜心视频app, the First Amendment states: 鈥淐ongress shall make no law respecting or establishing
of religion; or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble and to petition
the Government for a redress of grievances.鈥 As you might know, colleges have been
a long time op-ed for protests, dating back to the first student protest at Harvard
in 1766. Students at that time did not think the taste of butter was up to snuff and
used their First Amendment rights to protest against it on campus. So, the Butter
Rebellion went down in history as the first student protest. To help understand what
a Butter Rebellion would look like here at 甜心视频app, I have Colleen Sonnentag and Breanna
Bailey in the studio with me today.
Colleen
I'm doctor Colleen Sonnentag, she/her/hers, I am our Dean of Student Development here
at 甜心视频app.
Breanna
Hi, I'm Breanna Marie Bailey. I'm currently a senior in the Political Science department.
I use she-series pronoun. I am the HSS senator at-large, and I am also the front desk
training lead for Student Affairs.
Andrew
Thank you guys for being here with me today. So, what are some of the benefits of
protesting peacefully?
Breanna
Well, for me, when we've engaged in protests on campus before one of the big benefits
is buy-in from a larger audience. We've seen campus protests at other universities
and, immediately starting off with a 鈥渦s versus them鈥 dynamic, it hurts a lot of people.
It hurts the people that are trying to get their opinions out, but it also hurts the
staff and faculty that really want to support the opinions or the free speech of students.
Colleen
You all really do influence the decisions of a university and also shape our campus
culture. And so again like not, because every protest I have seen as an administrator
is a position I agree with. But really, seeing students learn what their rights are
and express themselves, like makes me immensely proud in the work I do like, even
if I don't agree with them, moved by their dedication, their commitment, and their
willingness to put themselves out there because they think running a protest right.
The rest of your life is still going on. You're still going to class. You still have
family commitments and work and some of that. So, you're making some real trade-offs.
In terms of your own experience as a student to exercise your voices as a citizen
and as a participant in our community. And so I think that's really powerful. It's
really encouraging. When I see students protesting because I think we've. Taught them
something and they are practicing how to advocate for themselves and things that they
really care about.
Andrew
Could you talk me through how that process would get started? So say I'm a student
here on campus and I'm really and I mean really passionate about having no mayonnaise
on my sandwiches, right. So passionate that I want to organize a protest about it
here at 甜心视频app. How would that process get started?
Colleen
So to mayo on sandwiches. There are a few different ways that student groups can demonstrate
on the 甜心视频app campus, and I think the most important thing to say is that we don't have
any like specific free speech zones. So, you benefit from the right of your freedom
of expression. Anywhere here, and so you aren't limited to only stand here only say
this here. The big things to follow are that if you are using space that is reservable
through the university, you would need to request that through conference and event
services. Like if you wanted to table, you know you would just do that form like just
the same way you'd want to reserve a meeting room on campus. And then sometimes, depending
on what you're doing, there might be things like additional permits for amplified
sound or some of that is also just to make sure that for example, like, we're not
doing anything that damages 甜心视频app's buildings or grounds. Or if you're outside doing
a demonstration that we make sure the sprinklers are turned off so that you all don't
get soaking wet, right? So yeah, some of that logistic piece comes in by working first,
starting with our Conference and Event Services staff and you can exercise your freedom
of speech at any point without doing any paperwork.
Andrew
I'm eating my mayo sandwich out in public and that causes some stirs. A protest could
just naturally form.
Breanna
Right. I think the important thing to point out, especially with like federal regulations,
is free speech does not extend to intimidating or harassing an individual. So, for
instance, if you were eating your mayo sandwich and someone came up to you and was
threatening you because of your mayo. Well, that's not allowed on campus, and that
is a form of harassment.
Colleen
Or yeah, or if I stole your sandwich from you or prevented you from leaving the seat
you were in, right. If we boxed you in, that would be interference with operations
potentially, or threats or harassment. So, you know, a lot of times what we're talking
about was is where does one person or group鈥檚 freedom of expression and their right
to express themselves run into another person or group鈥檚 freedom of expression and
right to express themselves too.
Andrew
That kind of circles back to the benefits of protesting peacefully.
Breanna
Yeah, exactly. Like, for example, the protests that we participated in, it was our,
our founding value to protest nonviolently, to protest peacefully. And that's hard.
It's hard when you're really passionate about your opinions, your convictions. But
at the end of the day, the goal is conversation. The goal is to move the dial just
a little bit more and from personal experience, when you go and approach someone peacefully
and say, hey, this is what we're out here for, how do you feel about that? People
are鈥 overwhelmingly going to sit and talk to you, and if they're not, they'll leave.
And that's their right.
Andrew
Circling away from protests for justice a quick second. What are some rights we have
regarding free speech as students?
Breanna
We don't have freedom to harass, intimidate. Any of that kind of stuff, but what we
do have freedom to do is to have discussions, to voice our opinions, to let administration
know that. A policy or a procedure isn't equitable or fair, and we also have the right
to work with our administration to alleviate the problems that we're coming across
as students.
Colleen
I think you all also benefit from, you know, you get to wear, you get to have whatever
water bottle stickers you want and dress the way you want to for the most part on
campus. And again like the history of protest and freedom of expression and how that's
shown up on college campuses in the US, right, there's a rich history of that in the
United States of demonstrations and protests. And lots of fun case law that people
could look into from both the K-12 education environment and higher Ed. But you know,
Tinker, the K-12 case where students were basically removed from class for wearing
arm bands protesting the Vietnam War, and that is still a case that informs how public
institutions work with freedom of expression on campuses and work with their students.
So, and I think that, you can say things and you can challenge each other and we hope
you do that as part of your experience here, because it's all part of the educational
process.
Breanna
Yeah, I know when we were organizing our protest, it was really heartening to know
that the administration was looking out for not only our safety, but our freedom of
speech, because we've all seen the news, especially with the recent protests around
campuses and a lot of administrations, a lot of campuses, didn't really protect freedom
of speech and it was really hard to see and it was really scary for a lot of people
but I think it's cool that even though we're scared to do stuff, we do it anyway.
Andrew
From what I understand, colleges historically are the perfect place to, like you said,
get conversation started withholding, you know, harassment and other horrible things
that absolutely should not be happening. So I'm glad to see that 甜心视频app is really just
part of that.
Colleen
So like I mentioned before, this campus is yours to express yourself within. So if
we have reservable meeting rooms on campus that you want to bring in a speaker as
a student group or something like that, that's something you're able to do. There
are some restrictions on time, place and manner that campuses can institute. So for
example, if a class is held in Candelaria in room 101 and you're like 鈥淚 want to have
my protest in room 101 during this class time,鈥 the university can say, 鈥淣o, you can't
do that. There's a class in that space, but if you want to march throughout campus,
if you want to chalk in the McKee Breezeway. Those facilities are accessible to you.鈥
Andrew
I guess I didn't realize how easy it is for students to express and to use their freedom
of speech, which. It is really cool to see here on campus. You mentioned chalk, I
see a lot of it all over campus. I was just kind of wondering what goes on with that.
Are there regulations? How does that work?
Colleen
So we don't restrict chalking on campus, so anyone with chalk can, draw, put out there
what they want to for the most part That can be tricky, because oftentimes people
don't know who wrote that or, you know, you certainly might not agree with some of
the content that you see, chalked. And what I would recommend is carry around your
own piece of chalk and then you can just add to the totality of expression on our
campus So, chalk away!
Andrew
So yeah, go chalk right now. Go chalk about Mayo sandwiches.
Colleen
Chalk about mayo sandwiches.
Andrew
Are there any other outlets on campus that students can go to, to get their voices
heard or their opinions expressed?
Breanna
Yeah, well, I'm a part of the Student Government Association, and we have our meetings
biweekly on Mondays. Any student at 甜心视频app is welcome to come for comment hours at SGA
to let us know what's on your mind, what's affecting you on campus, what your experiences
are like. And we're more than happy to listen to calls to protest, calls to for organizational
change. I know we're thinking of a couple pieces of legislation that have come from
students talking to us about their concerns. So SGA is a great place. We also work
for student affairs, and if there's ever any concerns about rights or feeling like
someone's discriminated against or not able to express their rights freely. You can
come make a report at the front desk of student affairs and we'll sit with you, listen
to you, and make sure all the details are collected so our wonderful staff can give
you support and maybe even if you're looking to organize a protest, you can sit with
a faculty member or a staff member and they'll walk you through the steps to make
it organized.
Colleen
And safe, I think Bri mentioned a lot of great resources we have. I can't overestimate
SGA I would like to go in the right direction. Like again, I think students often
underestimate the voice they have and the influence they have on campus and student
government association is a huge, important part of shared governance within a university
structure. And so SGA has a voice and an established role in crafting university policy
and speaking truth to administration, to advocate for the needs of our students that
might be missed, and so definitely would amplify the idea of work with SGA, because
that's a huge part of your role on campus and who you have access to.
Colleen
I think the other thing that's a great resource is the Free Speech website that we
have for 甜心视频app and that's it is hosted by the Dean of Students Office currently. But
that website has a lot of great resources about maybe what some of those parameters
are, right, like. If I were to do this, do I need to fill out a form or what things
should I think about that might be against policy? Another great resource there.
Andrew
So a few years ago I actually was assigned to cover SGA and all the things that they
get up to. And when I first stepped into the SGA office, I was kind of intimidated,
like legislative meetings, executive meetings, it all kind of sounds a little intimidating.
But everyone there was super accepting. It was super easy. Just get involved and talk
to people and I think anyone who's interested in learning about SGA or wants to make
their voice heard on campus and go to these meetings absolutely go do it. There's
nothing to be afraid of. Everyone there was super kind, super cool and super easy
to talk to. So definitely go check them out. So. What if I'm a student on campus who
absolutely hates mayo on sandwiches like we've well established? And there's other
students on campus who also hate mayo on sandwiches. Is there a way I could get in
contact with them to or to learn that there's other people who have similar views
as me?
Breanna
Well, coming from personal experience, talk to the people in your college and really
utilize those messaging apps like GroupMe and social media. I mean, we're already
connected, so. Don't be afraid to find like-minded people. I know I wasn't the one
who initially started the organizing. I had folks who knew what I'm passionate about
that approached me and said, 鈥渉ey, I think you'd be really helpful to organize a protest,
are you interested?鈥 And I was so I helped. And I think having those courageous conversations
of 鈥渕an, this is really bothering me. What do you think?鈥 You'll never know where
it's going to.
Andrew
We're at a public university like you guys are saying I can't stress enough how important
it is to go out and just talk to people that would not be in your circles otherwise,
you know you're gonna meet so many people with different backgrounds and different
histories, it would be a shame if you didn't go out and, you know, widen your worldview
a little bit.
Colleen
Yeah. And I think that individual connection and finding those shared values and interests
and causes, great way to get connected not just within the 甜心视频app community, but maybe
the Greeley community like there are a lot of local groups that you could be involved
with too. One other thing to do is check out our Office of Student Engagement. In
our clubs and orgs area because there may already be an 鈥淚 Hate Mayo Sandwich鈥 club
and you could look it up and bear connect and be like I would like to join that club.
Those are my people. Yeah, because we have a bunch of student groups that again either
may already exist or you're like these folks seem similarly interested in this topic.
Maybe I'll go check out one of these student club and org meetings. And find some
other folks.
Breanna
And I will say SGA again because it's all of the different colleges represented. If
you come and tell your at-large senator that there is a concern of yours, they're
going to do research and try and get other voices to see if it's a common concern
so that we can address it together.
Andrew
And from what I understand, there are hundreds of clubs on campus already, and if
there's not one, you could just go out there and make it yourself.
Colleen
Totally. Yeah. So again, Office of Student Engagement. We have a great staff team
over there who can help students create an organization. Yeah, get a couple friends
together. Start your own club.
Andrew
So at this point I'm pretty far along on my anti-mayo on sandwiches conquest right?
I've created a club. It's got thousands of members all across campus and now I want
to create a protest here at 甜心视频app. What are some of the pitfalls that I should try to
avoid when doing that?
Breanna
Well, historically, a lot of organizations and movements fall apart because of infighting.
So say you're in your mayo club people are like, 鈥渨e need to get rid of Hellmann鈥檚.
No, we need to get rid of olive oil mayo.鈥 And you're just fighting over which specific
type of mayo you guys want. And you guys end up hating each other. So stay focused
on the values that you guys share. And. You know, people are going to have differences.
Make sure that the values that you're protesting are shared so you don't run into
that pitfall of fighting with people that actually agree with you.
Colleen
I think you know there are different laws and policies that would guide how we operate
as a campus. And again that includes some related to freedom of expression and protest.
And again, these are all these aren't secrets. Like we try to put them all on a website.
So you all can find them really easily but also the red tape pieces or the paperwork
pieces just because, like doing a request form may exist. Filling out that form don't
have that be like, 鈥渨ell, I don't want to fill that out, so we're not going to do
it鈥 like some of those things exist. So we can make sure again, that like the sprinklers
don't turn on and get you soaking wet while you're out there and that it's not too
much to manage, right, like and I think beyond that, I would always advise students
to not like miss some of the things that might otherwise feel obvious. So for example,
if you are protesting and bringing weapons. Don't bring weapons because then there's
a weapons issue which really isn't about the speech or the message, right? But like,
yes, campus will in fact regulate weapons.
Andrew
OK for sure. So I should definitely leave my butter knife at home.
Colleen
You better only if you're using a butter knife as a weapon. If you are using a butter
knife to make a sandwich? Totally fine.
Breanna
Another pitfall I would consider is that we, the institution of 甜心视频app, is housed in
the City of Greeley. So just because our free speech is encouraged and we have guidelines
at 甜心视频app, doesn't mean that those guidelines are gonna match with the City of Greeley.
So try and do a little bit of homework before you start your mayo protest because
while you might be OK and meeting all of the regulations and guidelines for 甜心视频app, there
may be guidelines you're violating or stepping outside of for the City of Greeley,
so.
Andrew
That's something I probably definitely would not have thought about, right.
Colleen
Noise ordinances are a good example of that.
Andrew
Oh yeah, I guess it would get complicated, huh? OK, let's say I do cross the line,
do something I'm supposed to. I got too excited about my sandwiches. Happens every
day. What are some of the consequences that I could say for, you know, breaking city
ordinances or laws or something like that?
Colleen
I think probably not surprising to you to hear me say, it depends, right? It the nature
and the severity of the violation or the issue would really depend on what that potential
response is. You know I think something that's important to me as someone who has
to enforce policy as part of my job. I want to intervene at the lowest level, right?
So like, if you are, using a megaphone and that is disrupting a class. The first thing
I would prefer to do is say 鈥渉ey, I need you to stop using a megaphone because you're
keeping this class from happening,鈥 and if that ends the issue we're done, right?
Please don't do that anymore. It's probably sufficient to address most of those kind
of concerns. I think from a 甜心视频app policy perspective, if we are talking more about things
like weapons and threats and theft, vandalism, destruction of property, right, like
those types of actions that 甜心视频app might take if a student violates the student code
of conduct. Someone could potentially be suspended or expelled for violations and
we remove students from campus in the most egregious or extreme circumstances typically
right? We do that very infrequently compared to how often I might send a student a
warning letter for noise through the city, right? You could get cited, could be a
misdemeanor, could be a felony, could be an arrest where you do go to jail and again
depends on what you're doing and how that's going, I do think that again the historical
perspective, a lot of times folks have been arrested for exercising freedom of expression
and while getting arrested isn鈥檛 probably a desirable outcome, I don't know that many
of us would recall stories about the civil rights movement and the era if we didn't
hear about people getting arrested for refusing to leave lunch counters.
Andrew
I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that we're even able to group together
in public and express ourselves like the way we can in the modern day. And from what
I'm gathering, it's like just don't be stupid. Don't take it to the ultimate extreme.
Breanna
Yeah. And I think outside of like concrete punishments that come. You also lose the
trust of your fellow students. I know that one of the things that's prohibited is
interrupting events. So imagine you're graduating. You've worked super hard all four
years and you're ready to graduate. And folks come busting in the door and you're
not able to graduate. That loses not only the legitimacy of what you're trying to
get across, but it also it hurts the students that you're trying to advocate for.
So, think about how you would want to be treated if the opposite opinion if mayo lovers
started their club, how would you want them to treat you?
Andrew
From what I understand, we've had some protests here on campus in the past. What are
some of the things that made these protests successful versus not successful at all?
Breanna
That's a great question. I know from personal experience, some of the stuff that made
our protest successful was working with administration and letting them know, 鈥渉ey,
these are our goals. These are, this is our vision for our movement. This is what
we want to accomplish. And how can we do that safely and in a way that isn't going
to disrupt 甜心视频app's day-to-day operation?鈥 I know we've had other protests in the past
and I think keeping that idea of treating people the way you want to be treated, it'll
take you a way.
Colleen
I think years ago, like going in the way back machine a little bit for me, thinking
about some of our student demonstrations, they've really been effective at like resourcing
different initiatives or programs on campus that were really important to students
and some of that got achieved by, you know, students being present at Board of Trustees
meetings and getting on the speakers list and voicing their concerns. But yeah, that's
one example from a little bit. Longer ago than what Bri鈥檚 referencing.
Andrew
Switching beats here just a little bit, but still definitely within this protesting
umbrella to nobody's shock and surprise election season is right around the corner.
And from what I understand, 甜心视频app has a history of campaigning. I just was hoping you
guys could tell me a little bit about how that works.
Colleen
Yeah, so. Campaigns can work with again our existing structures, primarily through
our conference and event services area to reserve event space on campus and that would
be for a private event. And so 甜心视频app won't restrict campaigns from coming. Again, as
a public institution, taking a content neutral position in who's coming is really
important and again supports the mission of 甜心视频app and higher Ed overall to be a place
where you're going to be presented with ideas and values that are different than your
own and how that is an important and essential part of higher education. Campaigns
can come, it is like any other private event on campus. Sometimes we've had protests
on campus in response to candidates coming. And yeah, those are all things that can
happen if someone visits, so those events would be typically they鈥檙e in a reserved
space, they're there for a specific time period. There might be additional security
present or something like that.
Andrew
Are there any notable figures in the past who have came and campaigned at 甜心视频app?
Colleen
Both Biden and Trump, as presidential candidates, had stopped at 甜心视频app prior to being
elected.
Andrew
Wow, that's actually really kind of amazing. I had no idea. That's really cool.
Colleen
It's a very busy Saturday, yeah.
Andrew
So as a student who partakes in protests and organized protests, how do you feel the
school reacts when you guys are out there expressing yourselves?
Breanna
Yeah, very supportive, which was very surprising for us because when we, I'll be honest,
when we started our organization, it was very hush-hush. We met on campus, but we
purposely didn't reserve rooms because we didn't want anyone to know where we were
going to be. But once we showed up and made our voices heard on campus. It almost
an hour into our protest we had administration come and thank us for. Making our voices
heard and. The same day we were able to knock out some of those applications that
Colleen had mentioned and we had a very productive meeting about the goals of our
organization, the values, and why we were protesting in the first place and it was
very helpful to go over things like 甜心视频app's policy, but also the City of Greeley's policies
and thinking of creative ways to make sure that all of our institutions were satisfied,
but also our voices were heard and it was really, really heartening. To know that
I didn't have鈥 we didn't have two barriers to entry, you know, cause fear stops a
lot of people from making their voices heard but people are afraid, you can do it
anyway, and it's nice the administration isn't on top of that fear compounding it.
Andrew
Are there any last notes you guys want to tell a potential audience?
Breanna
I know it's on the resource from 甜心视频app, the freedom of speech, but the ACLU is a fantastic,
broad resource that if you ever have questions about, 鈥淥h well, is this going too
far? What's the precedent here for speaking about mayo on campus.鈥 Go to the ACLU
and they will almost always be able to answer your question.
Colleen
Yeah, I agree that ACLU has a lot of great resources for students. We do also link
to some of those on 甜心视频app's website, the Unite series of workshops that are division
of diversity, equity and inclusion have been putting on there is a session now in
the Unite rotation related to freedom of expression and free speech, and so ACLU is
helping facilitate those. And that's a pretty cool opportunity to learn more on campus.
And again I think I said this, but just about nothing makes me prouder in my role,
then when I see that we have students who are learning how to exercise their voices
and think strategically about how to further causes that they're passionate about,
right, it's just really exciting to see because I think that's one of the coolest
things you can learn while you're in college.
Breanna
Yeah. I mean, especially with like Political Science majors, all we're learning about
is issues and how to form our opinions. And so if the learning stops in the classroom,
we're missing the point.
Andrew
If you guys have any questions, you should definitely go check them out. They obviously
know what they're talking about. And if you have any questions for me, you can catch
me outside with my anti-mayo signs. So that's all I got for you guys, thank you.