I'm not sure why we're having this discussion. Nellis never said he wanted to stop anyone from speaking. Here is the exact quote:
"If we have a policy, period, there are going to be some groups that are going to be upset with that, but we need to have some guiding principals relative to free speech, while recognizing that in no way do we want to (curtail) free speech; we want to encourage opportunities for free speech,” Nellis said. “We’re a public university… I’ve had students that say well, you shouldn’t allow x, y or z (person) on campus to speak. I can’t do that.
“If they (speakers) register through the normal process, and it’s part of our normal policies, just because we don’t agree with their political views we can’t necessarily say no,” Nellis added."
Maybe I’m off on my own tangent here, but I didn’t think this free speech policy was ever about the external entities speaking. This was snuck in place because our sour grapes police chief was pissed that he lost on the Baker Center protest mess, so he worked over the new guy to pull a fast one while no one was around to notice.
Since Chief thinks he has to police the hell out of everything whether it needs it or not, the old policy that didn’t require reservations, but did indicate 20-some “reservable spaces” didn’t cut it (the only times reservations mattered were if there were 2 groups in one place, the one who reserved it gets the spot).
BINGO!!!! Winner Winner!!!!
Jeesh. Relax folks. A judge said OU didn't have rules/past practice in place to arrest the kids protesting in Baker. So, it decided to create some more clear rules before the next school year started. Some free speech advocates have no problem at all with the new policy. (See "green light" given by F.I.R.E. to the new policy
https://www.thefire.org/schools/ohio-university /). The ACLU doesn't like it at all.
But all this yelling and screaming and accusations and conspiracy stuff and toxicity seem a bit much. Especially for a place that's basically been run by liberal leaning folks for the 25 years I've been around it.
Anyway, one interesting thing about universities is they are almost always run by former tenured faculty. Deans. Provosts. Presidents. Chancellors. Most of the time they were tenure faculty who "rose up through the ranks." I wonder if only evil/incompetent/dictatorship minded people hell bent on oppressing students and faculty apply to leadership positions at universities?
Last Edited: 12/13/2017 12:59:15 PM by Ohio69