By Isabelle Veloz
Last month, Purchase College's free speech policy was added as a resource to the Purchase website. The established policy ensures all students, faculty, and administration members are aware of the general rights and expectations of the Purchase community.
The policy states, "SUNY Campus students are guaranteed the rights of free inquiry and expression. Subject to applicable content-neutral policy, students are guaranteed the right to hold public meetings and engage in peaceful and orderly assemblies—including, but not limited to, protests, demonstrations, rallies, vigils, marches, and picketing—in and upon designated public areas of campus grounds and buildings."
"YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF THE FREE SPEECH ZONE" stickers students put around campus following the protests of last semester. (Photo by Isabelle Veloz)
For decades Purchase has taken pride in its motto “Think Wide Open” which is described as a way of learning, teaching, and being while pursuing further education while on campus. Journalism Professor Ross Daly shares that Purchase has become an institution of “Thinking narrow and thinking shut” instead.
Daly continued, ”There’s this notion going around that the administration has established a free speech zone—that's false…what this policy does is create a no free speech zone.”
Daly has various concerns with the policy, especially considering he teaches a class titled "Freedom and the Media" and is an advocate for student's voices.
”We don’t need the administration to say we have the right to free speech, we already have that right and what they've done by designating their specific area is to limit free speech rights," Daly said. "The administration has no right to stop it, they can try to stop it, but they can get sued and they will lose."
Andrew Salomon, faculty presiding officer, said, “Looking at the First Amendment as a whole, it is a major cornerstone of education and for a public college to begin to curtail freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and peaceful non-disruptive freedom of assembly goes against not only our American values- they are against educational values.”
“To ensure student safety and fulfillment of their educational mission, higher education campuses establish—consistent with the First Amendment—content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions," Patrica Bice, vice president for student affairs, wrote in a campus-wide statement on Aug. 27.
The statement continued, "These content neutral policies enable students to have your voices heard in a peaceful manner regarding any issue, regardless of subject or viewpoint, without disrupting activities on campus that impact the campus’s ability to provide educational events, instruction, and other services… We also want to reiterate that while students have a Constitutionally protected right to express their views, that right is not limitless.”
Bice has also established changes which consist of capping events on campus to 150 people from the previous amount of 300 people, and implementing a limitation on window obscurity that prevents 75% of any window from being covered.
Various students, alumni, and faculty have spoken out against this statement claiming “content-neutral” refers to protests that have taken place and have caused division between the administration and the rest of the Purchase community.
“The free speech section is definitely a response to the pro-Palestine protests from last semester. I find it very disheartening that our administration seems to believe holding Zionism accountable for the human rights violations in Gaza is equal to making antisemitism threats or supporting terrorism,” said Kris Koszalka, a sophomore studio composition major.
Koszalka continued, “Students protesting how civilians have been killed were not causing danger by sitting silently in a circle—that is not the equivalent of yelling ‘fire’ in a movie theater to cause a panic. The manner in which administration and police handled the situation, however, induced more hysteria than the protests themselves.”
Billy Isidro, an alum who graduated in 2023, stated, “It’s quite silly of them to advocate for First Amendment rights and expression of that right while not having completely compensated the students for the horrific abuse by police they faced during the Gaza Solidarity encampment.
Yes, students have to follow campus policies, but to ‘cooperate’ with college administrators whilst holding an army of police officers at their throats doesn’t feel like the most safest and comprehensive way to conduct discourse.”
Salomon has expressed agreement with the free speech policy becoming visible in response to protests that occurred last semester.
“The obligation of Purchase administrators has to be to first uphold free speech rights rather than to curtail them when whatever the students are saying or thinking becomes uncomfortable to those in authority,” Salomon said. “I thought the policing of students was just 100% wrong and a straight up violation of their first amendment right—Those students were literally thought policed."
Salomon notes that he remains open to the conversation with cabin officials here at Purchase and getting clearer guidelines and information from those at SUNY to ensure we have a robust understanding of their First Amendment rights.
Freedom of Speech information door hangers were distributed to residents in the Wayback building. (Photo by Arlenis Marmolejos)
Purchases' social media policy has also become visible and states, “In any use of social media, College departments, including all faculty/ staff of such departments, shall not violate any laws and/or college policies."
This includes but is not limited to, "Inappropriate language; Inappropriate pictures of any sort or kind; Posting or promoting illegal activity or proof of illegal activity; Harassing or discriminating against any person; Posting defaming comments or remarks against any person; Copyright and trademark; Posting any personal opinions of any sort or kind regarding the College without a disclaimer that such opinions are not the official position of the College and/or posting unprofessional or rude comments, responses or postings of any sort or kind about the College or its employees.”
A number of faculty have asked for clarification regarding what is deemed “inappropriate content” as well as general paranoia when engaging in personal use of their social media. Many faculty members also link personal pages onto their Purchase websites so that content like articles is easily accessible.
Bice has responded stating, “Some faculty have raised concerns more specifically with parts of the Social Media policy. Again this policy has been in place for many, many years, but seems to be drawing attention now that is more visible on the new webpage. This could be an area where we have more discussion about some adjustments to the policy."
Salomon believes, “There needs to be a reexamination of priorities if Purchase is going to return to a healthy living and learning community which is absolutely essential for the success of everyone on this campus.”
“I've been here almost 20 years and I’ve never seen an atmosphere so hostile toward freedom of expression as it is now," Daly said. "The policy that was recently published about freedom of expression is an example of that. The same reason people always try to control speech is to control thoughts of people and their ability to express those thoughts. People should push back against this policy, they should test it.”