Acknowledging that it will require policy revisions, Syracuse University has decided to tweak its rules on specific aspects of free speech: harassment, electronic communications, banners and protest. Out of all of the tenets of free expression at SU, the intersection of student protest and individual autonomy was what warranted the most review.

Chancellor Kent Syverud announced in an email earlier this month that the university will be making changes to its free speech policy. The discernment process included the input of the Student Association, GSO, Student Bar Association, University Senate and SU’s Working Group on Free Speech. A report was presented last fall with the Working Group’s recommendations on how to best tailor SU’s free speech policy to the current climate.

Looking ahead, SU should go further in distinguishing the details of its free speech policy — not so much to limit free speech by defining it, but to ensure that free speech is preserved on all sides for students, faculty and staff at SU.

As of now, the recommendations are just that: recommendations. Workgroup chair David Rubin said he is unsure which changes will be implemented in the final revamp of the free speech policy.

In light of major demonstrations like that of THE General Body in 2014, it is critical for SU to move toward clarifying its stance on student protests. During the 18-day sit-in, the university was confronted with a mass protest and had to determine whether the type of social and physical impact was within SU’s rules for conduct and speech.

According to Syverud’s email, anti-harassment policies are poised to be more consistent, accessible and structured to promote debate in a peaceful manner. SU outlined that protests should not silence or disrupt speakers on campus and should also be peaceful. Syverud also wrote that protests at the University must not disrupt daily life and learning.

It’s true that by nature, demonstrations are supposed to be disruptive. But what SU seeks to do is strike that balance between allowing dissenting student groups to be disruptive intellectually and ensuring the health and safety of all members of the university community.

Independent of these proposals, which have been months in the making, incidents like the recent Shimon Dotan controversy are a tangible reminder of why free speech is so important on campus.

Syverud wrote that the goal is to post drafts of policy revisions by the end of October and that final versions should be implemented by the end of this fall semester. This leaves only a few months to finalize the revisions, but students must keep in mind that SU’s move toward solidification on free speech policy may have been sidelined due to the university’s focus on other student life-related initiatives.

So rather than perceive the university as putting free speech on the backburner, the SU community should be cognizant that these initiatives take time to be actualized.

Published on September 21, 2016 at 12:31 am

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