To preserve free speech on our campus, the staff of The Wooster Voice would like to bring to the attention of the faculty, staff, administration and student body the need for an impartial group to which individuals can appeal when their art or published materials are found to be in violation of a campus policy.
The need for such a group was brought to light last year when two different student works were removed from Lowry Center, in one case through a misapplication of policy and in another simply because one staff member found the content offensive.
In one instance, the student group k(no)w was required to remove part of its Art Wall installation because a student complained that the Art Wall’s images of cartoon genitalia were in violation of the Sexual Harassment Policy. The policy seems to clearly have been misapplied in this case, as the portion of the policy cited says “explicit sexual pictures are displayed in a professor’s office or on the exterior of a residence hall door.” The images in k(no)w’s Art Wall were anatomical cartoons, not sexually explicit images like pornography. As one viewpoint pointed out last year, if this policy were to be applied across the board in the way that it was in relation to the art wall, anatomical diagrams in a biology textbook could be deemed as a violation of the harassment policy. Furthermore, k(no)w asked if they could either cover sections of the wall or put up a sign indicating that they had been forced to take the installation down, but both proposals were denied.
The case of the Art Wall indicates that we need a committee to which individuals can appeal when their work is found to be in violation of a campus policy. We do not believe that the staff member who told k(no)w to take down its installation and denied their alternate proposals knew that the policy was being misapplied, nor do we believe they were behaving maliciously. However, we firmly believe that decisions about whether to remove or silence someone’s speech should be up to more than just one individual. Although k(no)w felt strongly that the policy had been misapplied, the group had no avenue for recourse – there was no one to whom they could appeal the decision.
The second case of silencing student speech is even more concerning. Several times last year, a comedy publication known as The Squirrel was anonymously distributed throughout Lowry Center. A student life staff member was seen by staff of The Wooster Voice removing all copies of the publication they could find because they proclaimed the content therein was “offensive.” Once again, the student distributing The Squirrel had no avenue for recourse when their work was being systematically silenced.
Last year, staff members justified the publication’s removal because it violated the Lowry posting policy. However, the portion of the policy invoked has traditionally only applied to posters near the mail desk and on the Lowry staircase. Furthermore, the justification for The Squirrel’s removal from the tables in the dining hall was that it was not an approved dining center publication. To be approved, it would have to be submitted to a staff member in dining services,; this would have destroyed the anonymity of the author, which was a central feature of this well-intentioned and harmless publication. This is additionally problematic because once again, decisions about content of a student publication are left up to one individual.
We, as a community, need to push for an impartial group made up of students, faculty, staff and administrators to which groups and individuals can appeal when their work is silenced. It is not enough to trust the good judgment and intentions of individuals in power. Those who silence speech often do so because they truly believe that removing content they find objectionable will improve their communities. However, as a community theoretically dedicated to critical thinking and intellectual rigor, we need to recognize that all people have a right to speak no matter how objectionable we might find their ideas, and we should create a concrete system to ensure that all members of our community retain their right to be heard.
The Voice staff can be reached for comment at Voice@wooster.edu.