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Demonstrations Policy
It is clearly inevitable, and indeed essential, that the
spirit of inquiry and challenge that the university seeks to
encourage will produce many conflicts of ideas, opinions and
proposals for action. The university community recognizes
its responsibility to provide effective channels for internal
communication, free discussion and rational persuasion as
the normal and preferred means of airing and reconciling
such differences. On occasion, recourse to public demonstration
and protest may become, for some, a necessary
and justified means of supporting their cause or position.
In such cases, the university must seek to ensure a fair
and reasonable balance and coordination between two
sets of rights that are brought into conflict with one
another. The first is the right of the members of the university
community freely to pursue their academic and
vocational objectives without unreasonable obstruction or
hindrance. The second is the right of the members of the
university community freely to communicate, by lawful
demonstration and protest, the positions that they conscientiously
espouse on vital issues of the day.
The university endorses both sets of rights and believes
that each can be fully exercised without serious damage
to the other.
However, neither set of rights justifies jeopardizing or
threatening the safety of persons or property, including
serious overcrowding of campus areas; interference with
processes or procedures of instruction, research, administration
or other activities authorized to be conducted in
university facilities or on university property; violation of
established closing hours; or obstruction of authorized
access to, use of or egress from university facilities.
These are regarded as conduct inimical to the policies and
objectives of the university community, and such conduct
by students may result in disciplinary actions from the
university under university student conduct procedures.
Though clearly violent, unlawful or otherwise disruptive
activities of identified participants during a given demonstration
will subject those persons to university sanction
despite any prior warning or admonition to the student,
such activities shall not, of themselves or ordinarily in the
absence of expressed prior warning, impair the right of
other students to participate or continue in lawful demonstration
and protest.
Circumstances may, however, combine to produce a situation
in which reasonable persons may differ about whether
the demonstration — regarded as a whole — infringes,
or threatens immediately to infringe, upon the rights of
other members of the university community. When in
such cases the university person in authority — administrator,
faculty or student chairperson — judges that the
demonstration has passed proper bounds, she/he shall
communicate to the demonstrators insofar as feasible
that this is his/her judgment, and she/he shall require that
the demonstration be modified on stated conditions or
promptly terminated. Failure of any student to observe
such a declaration may subject him/her to disciplinary
proceedings. The vice president for student affairs shall
ordinarily be the administrator whose judgment shall be
determinative in such situations; and, whenever she/he is
available and the circumstances otherwise reasonably
permit, she/he shall authorize such declaration to be
issued where, in his/her judgment, it is appropriate under
this policy. Students seeking additional information should
contact the dean of student development.
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