By Nasai Rivas
On Aug. 19, California State University’s Time, Place and Manner policy was changed bringing about criticism from members of the campus community.
“This policy changed overnight with no consultation,” Deborah Hamm, retired faculty representative of the California Faculty Association Long Beach, said at the “Silencing in the Name of Free Speech Discussion” on Dec. 5 at the Anatol Center.
Sponsored by the California Faculty Association in Long Beach, around 60 students and faculty members came together to listen to a presentation on free and protected speech.
Their questions and concerns about the new TPM were answered by Mohammad Tajsar, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The event was moderated by Assistant Professor of American Studies Preeti Sharma and Associate Professor of International Studies Yousef Baker.
Baker said the main reason for the event was because freedom of speech is being restrained through the change of the TPM policy.
“It’s an effort by administrators on this campus to impose a solution that is looking for a problem,” Baker said.
During the discussion, Baker said ever since the beginning of protests against Israel’s action in Gaza, right wing and liberal “forces” such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Academic Engagement Network are targeting speech on campus for students.
“I understand what is happening is that these are efforts [to] constrain speech that is not liked, limit political speech on campuses, silence professors and/or student organizations… [undermining] the credibility of university by saying that is a space of indoctrination,” Baker said.
Later in the discussion, Tajsar spoke with students about how other campuses are restricting speech in response to the pro-Palestine protests.
Tajsar said that on other campuses, students and faculty have been prosecuted and charged with various misdemeanors.
“These students and faculty members have also been sanctioned internally within the university, subject to disciplinary procedures for violating things like faculty codes of conduct, student codes of conduct, and that carries with it significant repercussions,” Tajsar said.
Toward the end of the discussion, some students and faculty member had questions for the ACLU attorney.
Marcus, a student who was not comfortable giving his full name or major to the Current, asked “Do you have any advice on going about doing the research to… find out how much money they wasted on writing up this bogus document, this trash piece that’s meant to, you know, put tape over the mouths of students and faculty?”
Tajsar responded to Marcus’s question saying he can request public records from CSULB to find more information.
Marcus said he came to the event in support of faculty targeted by the TPM policy and to hear from an “educated legal source” on the topic.
“I think it’s a waste of our tuition money and its implementation has been biased from the beginning,” Marcus said.
