The University of Southern California has a ridiculous "free speech zone" — the only place you're allowed to stand on campus and speak your mind without prior approval. Yesterday, a student group held a "knit-in" in front of the campus bookstore to protest the sale of sweatshop-produced clothing inside, and the administration ordered the students to relocate to the Free Speech Zone.
I teach at USC and I can't imagine how this is consistent with our values. Universities should dream of students who organize themselves to take action on social issues — this is exactly the kind of thing we should be encouraging. Universities are meant to be marketplaces for ideas, not planned economies where the commissars tell you when and where you're allowed to speak your mind. What an embarrassment.
The USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation (SCALE) held a knit-in in front of the Pertusati University Bookstore to protest the university's contracts with manufacturers it claims use sweatshop labor to produce Trojan merchandise, but the knit-in was broken up minutes after the participants began knitting.
Lori White, associate vice president for Student Affairs, told SCALE it would have to relocate its protest to Hahn Plaza, an area near Tommy Trojan and the Student Union that allows for large group gatherings without informing the university beforehand.
(Thanks, Lewis!)
Update: Richard Morgan suggests his "long feature I did for
Playboy about the systemic oppressive forces college
students are going through. It actually started out
from my time covering federal student policies for The
Chronicle of Higher Education."
David adds, "the University of Central Florida also has a 'free-speech' zone, which is currently a hotly debated topic on campus. The campus is rather large, and the areas that this allows are off of the main portion of campus, with much less foot traffic than the Student Union and SGA area, where different companies can set up booths and stands to sell products and get new customers. Also of note is the ongoing battle between the Students for a Democratic Society, which reformed on campus in the fall, and the administration. Apparently, you're allowed to sign people up for the military or entry-level jobs, or sell them cellphones and vacations, but not give donated items such as clothing and books and bicycles to students."
