The NEIU Independent

Issue date: 4/28/09 Section: News

Media Credit: neiusights.com President Hahs

The Coalition United for Free Speech (CUFFS) held a Free Speech Forum on April 16 in SU-214, and the room was packed with a variety of student interest groups. The forum addressed the ongoing issue of free speech rights and restrictions on the Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) campus. At an earlier Town Hall meeting, President Hahs had been invited to attend the forum by the leaders of CUFFS, to which she agreed only on the condition that she could be one of the speakers.

The forum began with John K. Wilson, five-time author and founder of CollegeFreedom.org, who spoke on the problems experienced by students on campuses all over the country in regards to their free speech rights. His main point was that campus policies which restrict free speech should be limited to the prevention of what is seriously disruptive.

Wilson went on to say that what is lacking in NEIU's official policy on campus free speech is "a positive statement of human rights and protections that the students ought to have." He referenced a 1967 coalition of faculty and student groups that listed a number of basic student rights and stated that our policy gives " some vague allusions to the idea of free speech, but there's no specific policies that are saying that the students have these rights."

Next, Dr. Brett Stockdill of the Sociology Department gave a speech on student rights. He cited the struggle against slavery, for women's suffrage and for civil rights, and of how if these actions hadn't used disruptive techniques, he asked the audience, "where would we be in today's society?" He also cited a Supreme Court case which ruled that, "inconveniencing does not extinguish the right of others to speak out, even if it creates a disturbance," as well as another one that states that a student's rights are not left behind him or her when they enter school property.

NEIU student and Air Force veteran Cassandra Shields-Cantú told her story of coming to school here, and of attending anti-war rallies, waiting for someone to criticize the troops. At one point she realized that the protestors really had nothing against her or any other veteran, and were only opposed to the horrors of war and the leaders who had started it all. She realized that, to her, the real crimes were the lack of health care for veterans, the money wasted and the casualties on both sides.

Continued...

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