The University of Texas at Austin created a task force in late October to combat disruptive protests while protecting free speech.
The University of Texas at Austin’s office of the dean of students’ Event Readiness and Response team states it will be a “support for campus events and provides educational programs on both student rights and responsibilities, and demonstration consultation and response.”
“The Office of the Dean of Students will always aspire to positively transform lives through the University’s core values: learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity and responsibility,” the event readiness and team guideline states
Its primary objective is to ensure that the policies will take place on campus, such as ensuring that the University of Texas at Austin will “allow speech if it does not violate the time, place, and manner rules as well as the law” and allowing students, staff, and faculty “to choose to not hear the speech of someone else.”
To guarantee that demonstrations will not be disruptive, time limits will be implemented on when and where amplified sounds such as microphones, bull horns and drums can be used.
In areas such as the West Mall, amplified sounds can be used from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m, while in the Creekside Residence Hall Lawn, it is allowed from 8am to 5pm from Monday through Friday.
“If the amplified sound is found to disrupt University business,” the Event Readiness and Response guideline states, “you will be asked to cease the amplification regardless of whether it was permitted at that time.”
In Chapter 13 of the Institutional Rules on Speech, Expression, and Activity guideline, students and visitors visiting the campus are prohibited from wearing “a mask, facial covering, or disguise that conceals the identity of the wearer.”
The guideline also states that “No person or organization may engage in expressive activity within a ten-foot clearance around points of entry and the perimeter of all University buildings,” and “distribute or display on the campus any writing or visual image, or engage in any public performance, that is obscene.”
Back in August, a report was released by the University of Texas (UT), asking the university to be more patient with the anti-Israel protests “to give ample warnings and time for movement, and at most to issue citations rather than make arrests.”
In September, UT student, Ammer Qaddumi, sued the UT after they suspended him for participating in an anti-Israel protest in April.
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Texas at Austin and the Event Readiness and Response team for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
