By Victoria Mejicanos, Dec 10, 2024
The implementation of a new Time, Place and Manner policy from the California State University system this semester as well as Cal Poly Pomona’s rebranding initiative have restricted free speech on campus, according to students and faculty.
Students still have every right to protest but now must gain approval and reserve spaces more than a week in advance, and there are more restrictions as to where and how students can protest, according to the new Time, Place and Manner policy. CPP’s enrollment and awareness campaign also comes with new guidelines for clubs and organizations to maintain cohesiveness with the new logo and website redesigns as well as the overall brand of CPP have begun to impact specific organizations.
Bonnie Thorne, CPP’s California Faculty Association president, is concerned that a policy dictating when, where and how students can speak will be weaponized against speech administrators don’t like. She also shared that the new Time, Place and Manner policy would have likely banned student protests like the ones at San Francisco State in the 1960s that led to the creation of Ethnic Studies.
“Students should be able to hold rallies and peacefully protest,” said Thorne.
Emily Summers, an intern with Students for Quality Education, shared similar frustrations with the Time Place and Manner Policy. She explained since SQE is attached to the CFA, it is considered an off-campus organization, making her work difficult.
“It just added a lot of hoops to jump through in order to do anything,” said Summers.
For example, on-campus organizations need to get materials such as posters and flyers approved by Associated Students Inc as well as remove them after a specific time. Anything not approved by ASI is subject to removal from public view, and since they are not an on-campus organization, Summers said they struggle to get approval.
Additionally, for any type of activity, many student clubs and organizations now must make a reservation 10 days in advance to receive a permit, according to students interviewed. The Bronco Leadership Center website provides information on the amount of advance notice needed for each event.
“It’s been difficult to reserve a space or to do any sort of protesting when you have to ask permission from the person you’re protesting,” said Summers.
Summers added there have even been attempts from the university to limit SQE’s communication with students.
“We actually ran into a problem last semester where they tried to get us to take down our Instagram page because we weren’t a club and remove Cal Poly Pomona from all of our stuff,” Summers said.
Cultural centers on campus recently had a similar experience. After receiving notification of a new mandate, several centers posted the same photo and almost-identical captions on their social media accounts Nov. 27, sharing their accounts were to be deleted by Jan. 1, 2025. All content from each center was set to go on the Division of Student Affairs’ Instagram page instead.
Employees in two of the centers confirmed their supervisors told them the changes were made as part of the rebranding initiative by the Division of Student Affairs.
The Poly Post was directed to speak with David Sedillo, the marketing and communication specialist for the Division of Student Affairs, about why this decision was made but did not receive a reply in time for publication. By Dec. 3, after campus backlash, DSA reversed its decision, providing a statement to DSA management.
The Poly Post obtained a copy of the statement from Amon Rappaport, CPP’s senior associate vice president for communications and chief communications officer, which read: “After thoughtful consideration and valuable feedback from our community, we have made the decision that departments’ Instagram accounts no longer need to be deactivated by Jan 31, 2025, and can remain open.”
All the centers posted an update on their Instagram accounts the same day the decision was reversed. It contains a design similar to the first announcement, with the caption and design acknowledging the opinions of students and encouraging them to follow the Division of Student Affairs on Instagram.
Prior to the reversal of the decision, Sara Perez, a student who frequents the Womxn’s Resource Center and the César E. Chávez Center for Higher Education said she believes if the decision was tied to the rebranding initiative, it would be detrimental to enrollment at Cal Poly Pomona.
“Realistically, if I had known these changes would have happened, I would not have accepted Cal Poly (Pomona),” Perez said. “If enrollment is down, and all these things, as someone from the outside, it doesn’t make me want to encourage others to apply and come to the school.”
Summers believes the Time, Place and Manner policy could also discourage students of color because practices, like banning face coverings, disproportionally affect them.
“It has had an effect,” Summers said, citing Students for Justice in Palestine. “It’s been difficult for students and clubs of color, just because it’s pretty obvious who they’re targeting, in my opinion.”
The policy prevents face coverings and requires students to identify themselves if asked during a protest. It also restricts the use of sound application, and “every person who violates or attempts to violate these rules and regulations is guilty of a misdemeanor,” according to the systemwide policy.
Kayla Randolph, another SQE intern, shared her concerns about the assumptions that can be made about student actions because a student’s intent cannot be directly proven. She is also concerned about how many outdoor spaces on campus are now considered private.
Peter Eliasburg, the chief counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said this is a common occurrence in universities that have increased amounts of protesting.
“What we see oftentimes is, unfortunately, overreaction from university administrators or problematic policies that don’t really come to people’s attention because they’re sort of not tested,” said Eliasburg.
He explained, often, policies like these could have existed previously but don’t usually gain attention until universities highlight them.
“There are a lot of groups that are pushing and saying, you know, support of Palestine is antisemitic,” Eliasburg said. “And so, it seems like universities are very much, you know, I think, overly cautious and overly restrictive of speech.”
Title VI is another policy that did not reach the forefront of conversation until a pro-Palestine event planned by students in the Seminar for Music Industry Studies course was canceled Nov. 17, two days before the event was scheduled to take place. Students were not initially given a reason for the cancellation of the event and emailed the dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences for an explanation.
In an email obtained by The Poly Post, CLASS Dean Camille Johnson wrote to a student, thanking them for their email and acknowledging the cancellation may be disappointing.
“The decision to cancel the event wasn’t made lightly,” the email read. “It was based on two key factors: complying with Title VI regulations and the extensive planning required for a large-scale event like an outdoor concert.”
Jason Lu, the interim director of the Bronco Leadership Center, said because the event was part of a class activity, it can’t exclude other members of the campus or members of that particular class from participating, especially when it involves controversial topics.
“Our policies are supposed to be content neutral,” Lu said. “Now, if this event was planned by the student group from the beginning, then that would have been fine. I can also say that the event itself was never fully approved. It was still marked as tentative and always the responsibility of the event organizers to ensure the event is fully confirmed in the system and not marked as tentative or canceled.”
Students were able to come up with an alternative plan to hold the event at The Haven Pomona in downtown Pomona Nov. 19.
Mya Ammari, the SJP president, said the organization’s members have felt as if administration was portraying the event as a safety threat.
“That’s like just a racist dog whistle; that’s literally what it is,” Ammari said. “For them to do something like this is truly insane, and I think that it doesn’t even seem like they’re blaming it on the fact that the event was booked last-minute. It seems as if they’re blaming it on the discrimination thing.”
This is not the first obstacle SJP has faced this semester. Ammari expressed frustration with other aspects of the Time, Place and Manner policy, like administration and other staff showing up to protest events and having to divulge every detail of an event prior to the planned demonstration.
“The lengths that I had to go through just to get them to approve a vigil, it’s insane,” Ammari said. “And the administration was literally there watching us the entire time.”
Feature image courtesy of Charlize Althea Garcia
