Evan Lisull found himself being taken away by police on Sept. 28 – all over a few pieces of chalk.

Lisull, a senior at the University of Arizona, organized a protest after Jacob Miller, a graduate student was arrested for protesting budget cuts with chalk messages. Miller chalked university walls on Sept. 24, according to a university-issued news release.

Lisull and his friends decided to use chalk, too. They handed out thousands of pieces of chalk to UA students on Sept. 28 encouraging them to write messages, like ‘chalk is speech’ and ‘First Amendment applies to universities.’

‘I was supposed to go out early in the morning and write the messages just as a form of encouragement, so people see it and are encouraged to write themselves,’ Lisull said. ‘That’s the whole idea of a university, to encourage this sort of exchange.’

But as Lisull began his protest, the UA Police Department stopped him.

Lisull was detained by the UAPD and cited with criminal damage and disturbing an education facility, he said.

Both Lisull and Miller were released Sept. 28 by the UAPD, but will still face possible penalties from the Dean of Students Office, according to the news release.

UA officials are devoted to two ideas: ensuring students’ ability to express themselves and ensuring the university is not damaged, said Paul Allvin, associate vice president for communications, in the Sept. 28 news release.

UA officials did not respond to phone calls or e-mails for additional comment.

‘It’s absurd for students to face criminal sanctions for simply trying to express First Amendment views regardless of whether the policy is constitutional or not,’ said Adam Gaya, program director for the Center for Campus Free Speech at UA. ‘This points to the lack of opportunity for free expression at the UA, and we’re definitely concerned about that.”That’s the whole idea of a university, to encourage this sort of exchange,’ Lisull said. ‘In reality, you’ll find that this is the opposite of the case: that there’s far more restrictions on speech on university campuses than there are elsewhere.’

Eric Moll, a senior environmental science major, helped distribute the chalk because he said he was upset at the university’s reaction to the original chalking.

‘We were just pissed off about the university’s attempts to crush dissidence,’ Moll said.

UA has a history of stifling student free speech, Lisull said. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-partisan, non-profit group whose goal is to maintain individuals’ rights at universities, gave UA its lowest rating for ‘at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech,’ according to its Web site.

Lisull said he hopes the protest will spark a debate about the university’s restrictions on speech, and he is continuing to work with the Center for Campus Free Speech to investigate and attempt to remedy the university policies.

UA President Robert Shelton told UAPD to stop citing students who commit similar acts and instead refer them to the Dean of Students Office, where Lisull and Miller will face possible consequences.

Lisull believes moving the cases to the Dean of Students Office could pose a bigger threat than criminal-court proceedings. He doesn’t think he’ll get a fair deal from the university.

‘There is a standard – ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ – in a criminal case,’ he said. ‘Now that’s it’s gone to the Dean of Students, the standard is ‘more likely than not.’ It’s the word of an anonymous caller who won’t be forced to testify against the word of an undergraduate: employees versus undergraduates.’

rhkheel@syr.edu

Published on October 5, 2009 at 12:00 pm