The Death of College Free-Speech Zones

Inside Higher Ed
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf
February 2, 2018

In 2016, Kevin Shaw, a student at Los Angeles Pierce College, was stopped from passing out Spanish-language copies of the Constitution around the community college.  He was told he needed to keep his activities confined to a small slice of campus -- what the institution has deemed its "free-speech zone."

Such areas, designated at some colleges both public and private, are where administrators expect students to exercise their free-speech rights to avoid interrupting the campus flow.  They can be small, such as the one at Pierce College, which was a rectangle no more than three parking spots wide, a little more than 600 square feet -- or limiting in other ways.  At the University of South Dakota, a student needs to reserve a free-speech spot at least five days in advance.

Read the full article at the Inside Higher Ed website here.