A controversial demonstration occurred recently outside Sullivan Hall regarding the termination of African American Studies professor, Dr. Anthony Monteiro. Although the First Amendment allows students to practice freedom of speech and protest whenever and wherever they want, protocols and regulations that must be followed before anyone protests on Temple’s campus.
“So part of our reservations process is when anyone, student, faculty, staff, somebody under the community, whomever,” said Student Center Director Jason Levy. “If they want to request space, we ask them what they are going to do with the space. And the way that the policy states is if you want to use space on Temple’s campus, and it’s space that we manage, go to our reservations website, make a request for space, we’ll process that request for space in three to five days.”
However, students are curious as to why it is necessary to reserve space when the First Amendment gives them the right to protest wherever, whenever.
“It’s freedom of speech, you should be able to say what you want, wherever you want, and not have to go through reserving anything,” said student Stephanie DeLorenzo.
Although the two circumstances do contradict each other, students do recognize that situations like this require order and safety protocols on such a big campus.
“I don’t think that’s necessary, you shouldn’t have to apply for space. But, that’s just, I don’t know, maybe it’s just policy,” said student Josh Outsole.
“The protest that occurred outside Sullivan Hall was not set up through the Student Center,” student Jason Levy said. “That’s not on our list of reservable spaces. I don’t think that anybody thought that they needed to make a reservation or a request for space.”
For more information about requesting space on campus visit temple.edu/studentaffairs.
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