As the fall semester begins across all 23 California State University (CSU) campuses, the CSU system has introduced a new policy regulating on-campus demonstrations, drawing criticism from faculty, student organizers and the California Faculty Association (CFA).
On Aug. 20, CSU students received an email from the Office of the Chancellor, notifying them of a new system-wide Time, Place and Manner (TPM) policy. The policy outlines restrictions on certain activities on campus and forms of expression.
The email states that, “we invite and actively encourage you to learn, grow and make your voice heard on issues that matter to you. Freedom of expression, however, is not an absolute right. It coexists with other rights, the CSU educational mission, and the need for public order and safety.”
CFA responded, calling the TPM policy an “anti-freedom-of-speech policy.”
“We recognize the need to ensure that our universities are safe and accessible for all students and members of the university community, but that is not really what this policy is about,” said Meghan O’Donnell, co-chapter president for CFA Cal State Monterey Bay (CSUMB), in a written statement.
“This is the CSU learning the wrong lessons from the campus encampments that occurred last term related to the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” O’Donnell said.
“This policy is really about creating a tool that will enable CSU administrators and campus police to punish members of the campus community when they engage in activities that are protected under the U.S. Constitution, but when those protected activities become politically challenging for the CSU to manage, or when those activities create disruption.”
According to O’Donnell, the CSU’s insistence that the new policy applies to faculty without conferring with the Union is in violation of CA labor laws.
TPM highlights “Public, Limited, and Non-Public Areas” establishing when and where individuals and groups can and can’t demonstrate. Each CSU has addendums to the policy including CSUMB.
- Public areas like the Main Quad, outside the Otter Student Union and the Tanimura and Antle Family Memorial Library can only be used between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m and require reservations. Paved pedestrian walkways and lawns on university property, while requiring no reservations, are still subject to these time restrictions.
- The Otter Student Union Ballroom, World Theater, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Room 1401, University Center Auditorium, and CSUMB Stadium/Cardinale Stadium are “limited areas” which require the same times and reservations but are not available for “assembling, marching, demonstrating or protesting.”
- With the exception of public areas and limited areas, all campus owned and operated buildings fall into non-public areas, not open to the public.
TPM also lays out policies for “Prohibited Activities and Uses on University Property.” For instance, masks and face coverings are allowed for those following school policy and applicable laws but if a CSUMB official(s) deems someone is in violation, “the University reserves the right to require such persons…to show identification when requested to do so by a University official.”
In addition, the policy bans encampments and overnight demonstrations as well as placards and signs that have either a stick or stake attached to them. Individuals and groups are also banned from drowning out or shouting down individuals/speakers to prevent them from speaking or being heard.
TPM highlights that those who violate the policy will initially be warned to stop. However, if the violation continues or if there is an imminent danger to university property or public safety, immediate dispersion may be authorized. Violation could be subject to Code of Conduct disciplinary measures for students, disciplinary actions for employees, legal action from the university and could result in citation or arrest.
The president of the University of California (UC) system, Michael V. Drake, issued a statement announcing similar restrictions on UC campuses Aug. 19.
While the language in both the CSU and UC statements is general, the new restrictions come in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments which swept across university campuses nationwide last spring such as at CSU Humboldt where students barricaded themselves in the university’s administration building for over a week, forcing the campus to temporarily shut down and leading to the arrest of 32 protesters.
“I imagine that students who are pushing for Palestine liberation or other issues on campus, are going to continue to protest and have encampments regardless of this policy. It’s just raising the stakes for them. The threat of suspension or expulsion or arrest is going to be higher,” said CSUMB professor, Sara Salazar-Hughes, whose research has primarily focussed on conflict in Israel and Palestine.
Many members of CSUMB’s Abolitionist and Decolonial Learning Collective (ADLC), a student group involved in organizing pro-Palestine and social justice demonstrations, such as last semester’s “All Out for Palestine,” fear the implications of the new policy, such as protestors being persecuted for wearing a mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The members contacted by the Lutrinae wished not to be identified for fear of retribution.
Despite these concerns, the group says it will try and find workarounds to keep the movement alive “so we have to be even more careful now to make sure that we get heard.”
According to O’Donnell, “we are also working with students to ensure their rights are protected, and will be doing what we can to support them, whether that is through the student led organizing wing of CFA, known as Students for Quality Education (SQE), or whether that is through Associated Students…if students seek to challenge this policy’s curtailing of their rights, faculty will do what we can to support them.”
For more information about Time, Place and Manner, readers can view the entire policy here, as well Cal State Monterey Bay’s addendum here.