Some
college campuses, after years of restricting free-speech on campus, are starting
to relax their policies, although only slightly.Southern Utah University, after its previous
policy update in 1990, drafted a new freedom of speech policy creating
"campus free speech zones," where students can protest without prior
permission.The new zones are in
addition to a general policy allowing students to protest anywhere on campus,
so long as they follow the law.Eastern
Kentucky University is relaxing restrictions on campus posting.Whereas currently, to post a flyer on a
campus bulletin board, it needs to be pre-approved by EKU administration, the
revised policy allows students to post without approval. Finally, Arkansas
Tech, which used to restrict student speech to only one “free speech zone”, has
expanded their policy to allow speech at an indoor auditorium for two hours per
day.While all these changes reflect a
relaxing on free speech restrictions, free speech advocates still find them too
restrictive.The Student Press Law
Center has concluded that restrictive zones like those at Arkansas Tech “at their best, tolerate speech but have little
to do with actually encouraging lively and spirited expressive activities on
campus."
