By: Kelly Malambri / Staff Writer
As many know, the Biscayne Bay Campus is much smaller than the Modesto Maidique Campus, and as of late it seems to be being treated quite differently because of this fact. On March 10, 2011 The Beacon reported that at BBC, protesting is only allowed in the small, specifically the area limited to the space by the flagpoles in front of the parking lot.
While this area is at the center of the campus, the limits on students’ right to assemble put in place by the University are very rare, overbroad and infringe upon students’ First Amendment rights.
Many argue that on the smaller campus, these limits should be put in place to prevent any disruption from occurring near classrooms, and this has been the reasoning behind the advent of the protesting zones in the first place. However, as The Beacon also noted, an overwhelming amount of universities do not have these restrictions, and protesters are able to demonstrate more freely.
Essentially, if the rules put into practice at BBC were justifiable, it seems more universities would have adopted them in order protect class time from those interruptions, too. However, this is not the case, and the restrictions are more broad than necessary.
The rule implemented at BBC specifically limits the locations available to protesters and does not specify that certain content in a protest be prohibited, making the rule seemingly content-neutral. However, other types of loud, disruptive speech are allowed on campus during class hours.
For example, upon taking classes at the Marine Science building, I have heard swim meets or practices and the cheering that follows from inside the building. It is questionable that only protesting is prohibited from such areas because of its disruptiveness, but events such as these, just feet away from the building, are permitted, even though they cause the same problems. Activities such as these, and those that can be heard from across the bay that frequently occur, invalidate this reasoning behind the implementation of the rule.
Protesting in a confined area defeats the purpose of such demonstrations. Using the Marine Science building as an example again, if someone wished to protest a practice of research being conducted at the bay, the audience at the Marine Science building who the speakers aim to reach would be increasingly harder to communicate with. The rule thus unreasonably burdens students’ right to communicate their protests in peaceful manner. The speakers, for example, will not reach students who enter the Academic Center Buildings I and II or the Marine Science building from the south side of the University and do not cross through the Wolf Center.
Pushing students away from the areas in which there is a potential for controversy infringes upon students’ First Amendment rights. Protests are not meant to be quiet pleas for change, but rather an “in-your-face” demand for immediate reform, whose message is intended to reach all of those that it affects. To repress the freedom of students and to demand such reform for unjustified reasons is clearly a violation of BBC’s students’ First Amendment rights.
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