Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: We want a ‘controlled environment’ for student speech
By Adam Steinbaugh March 26, 2018
In February, students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute stood on a sidewalk outside of a hockey game, passing out buttons and flyers critical of the administration — until private security guards stopped them, claiming they had “eminent domain†over what the students reasonably believed to be a public sidewalk.
In a town hall last week (full video here, and relevant video here), RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson asked the Institute’s public relations director and lawyer to respond to the controversy. After conceding that an officer was wrong to use the term “eminent domain†— which made no sense at all — RPI’s leadership claimed that the Institute in fact owns the sidewalk and was therefore justified in asking the students to leave. Whether RPI even owns the sidewalk is, as we’ve observed before, a moot point, as its own policies purport to grant students the right to engage in speech without requiring advance permission.
https://www.thefire.org/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute-we-want-a-controlled-environment-for-student-speech/
