[Peace-discuss] Free Speech article in N-G Today

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

>
Questions raised about UI policies on free speech
> By Christine Des Garennes
> Sunday January 7, 2007On a cold, windy day in December, on the last  
> day of classes for University of Illinois students, Martin Smith  
> headed to the Quad to gather support for a political rally in  
> Washington, D.C.
>
> The UI graduate student in history, a veteran of the Marine Corps  
> and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, carried a stack of  
> bright, lemon-colored fliers about the January rally.
>
> He wanted to get the word out before students left for the semester.
>
> The Undergraduate Library is always a busy place, particularly  
> around finals time. Smith and other members of the International  
> Socialist Organization, a registered student group, zoomed in on a  
> spot outside the library's entrance.
>
> The wind chill was below zero.
>
> They soon moved to a spot inside the atrium that leads to the  
> underground library. They set up a card table and arranged the fliers.
>
> Not long after setting up, library staff asked them to leave. The  
> appropriate place to hand out the information, they were told, was  
> in the Illini Union lobby or outside on the union's plaza.
>
> "Libraries in particular are known for free speech," Smith said.  
> And yet at the entrance of the library, "a symbol of free speech,  
> free speech is being squeezed," he said.
>
> Two weeks earlier, members of AWARE, the Anti-War, Anti-Racism  
> Effort, encountered similar reaction to their leafleting on campus.
>
> During the state high school football championships, AWARE members  
> walked through a university parking lot at the southwest corner of  
> Florida Avenue and First Street and handed out bright orange fliers.
>
> The flier, developed by the group Grandmothers for Peace, is titled  
> "What Families Need to Know About Military Recruiting in High  
> Schools and Colleges."
>
> The AWARE members distributed them near the tent of the Illinois  
> National Guard, a sponsor of the tournament.
>
> Within 10 minutes of passing out fliers, they said, Champaign  
> police arrived and directed AWARE members to leave the parking lot  
> and instead stand on the sidewalk
>
>
> Read the entire story at link below:
>
> http://www.news-gazette.com/news/print/2007/01/07/ 
> questions_raised_about_ui_policies_on_free_speech/

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