2008 Woodie Awards
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FIRE stresses individual rights of college students
Robert L. Shibley puts students' freedom for protest to the ultimate test.
By: Ashley Garris
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: News
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FIRE's mission is to defend and sustain such rights as freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty and the sanctity of conscience.
"This organization has had great success advocating for free speech at numerous major universities, such as West Virginia University, Texas Tech, the University of Nevada at Reno and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro," said Shibley.
Shibley was invited to Clemson in response to last semester's speech zone controversy. The Clemson Conservatives tried to register a protest of the Clemson Gay-Straight Alliance's gay marriage advocacy outside of Daniel Hall, where the Alliance met. Clemson authorities denied the request since that area was outside of the two on-campus "free speech zones."
On Oct. 30, 2006 Clemson Conservatives held the protest anyway; and two Clemson police officers videotaped it, but protesters were not asked to leave.
On Nov. 9, the Office of Judicial Conduct formally found the Clemson Conservatives guilty of protesting in a "non-designated area" and threatened to remove the group of their recognition as a student organization along with "admonition" and "censure" sanctions.
The Office of Student Conduct also warned Clemson Conservatives President Andrew Davis that action would be taken against him personally if he organized or helped with another protest outside of the free speech zones. For help, the Clemson Conservatives appealed to FIRE since the university refused to acknowledge the inadequacy of the policy.
"They were going to stick with their policy until we contacted FIRE and started a media campaign against them," said Davis.
On Nov. 14, FIRE wrote a letter to President Barker informing him that Clemson's restrictions on free assembly violate both the U.S. Constitution and Clemson's own policies, including the Sales and Solicitation Policy that states "nothing in this policy or its regulations is intended to infringe upon any constitutional or other legal rights regarding freedom of speech."
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