A Closer Look: Free Speech: a right, but it's also a privilege

President Hahs has noble motives behind drafting a free speech document to provide clarifications on how to conduct yourself in regard to free speech. However, this is a touchy subject and many of the motives seem personal. I can agree with all reasons and arguments that President Hahs wants to provide for this document but I think the execution is all wrong.

Feb. 28, 2007 introduced President Hahs to the activism on the NEIU campus which she has called the CIA incident. That was followed by two demonstrations in her office. Then there was the famous Sen. Durbin incident. The first took place in a classroom, the second the president's office and the third, Alumni Hall. All three are on the restricted list for demonstrations.

The classroom during regular class sessions should be off limits but that distinction was not specified in the document. When a document such as the DDS has at the top, 'policy & procedures' they are looked at as a way to force students to act in a certain way. Not that policy is a bad thing it is the student conduct code gives a framework in how to act, but it also puts into it the fact that if you don't act a certain way there will be negative consequences.

The First Amendment has been a very open amendment giving a whole lot of freedom to the individual. The drafters of the constitution made the freedoms of press, speech, religion, petition, and assembly the first amendment in the Bill of Rights for a reason.

Those rights deserve respect and President Hahs does understand that. That is why she said, "It is important to have free speech but part of the etiquette of free speech is not to drown out others right to free speech." That is why President Hahs was motivated to draft this document. It is also the reason why I feel the organizations that demonstrated during Sen. Durbin's speech learned their lesson from the event and now understands the improper use of the power. After all isn't college about learning? Sometimes the best teacher is experience.

NEIU has a tradition of activism. When going through copies of the Interim the NEIU student newspaper in the '60s a chain of events with a military recruiter being struck by a student can be followed that are similar to the CIA incident. The big joke in the Independent is, 'Same NEIU different decade.'

Many students don't have the right to free speech in High School. It is the right of the school not to allow minors to engage in such activities. In college you are an adult that doesn't mean that those same high school students that have not been capable to exercised free speech in high school will know how to conduct themselves when they get to NEIU. They have no practice and have never even been allowed to screw up in that area.

We can't expect new students to understand everything there is about this complex right. Instead of making policy NEIU should be educating, part of the mission of the school. Give new students the opportunity to learn from the prior classes mistakes.

The best way to implement this document is not a policy but a class. Free speech etiquette can be implemented in the First Year Experience Course. The best examples are right in the student newspapers that President Hahs presented to me during our interview about all the above incidents. There are also positive examples that can be found on how things are done right. You can mix in a little law, and current student conduct codes and you have a curriculum that can provide the knowledge and the freedom to choose and respect Free Speech without putting on a whole lot of restrictions.