Speak your piece.

• Author: Maloney, Cliff, Jr.
• Position: LAW & JUSTICE

DO YOU REMEMBER the first person to greet you when you went to college? Was it a resident assistant, or perhaps an orientation guide? Whomever it was, chances are he or she was an employee of the Student Life Office, which ideally is designed to enhance your outside-of-the-classroom college experience. Every college or university has dedicated staff to this office to help with campus organizations, housing, events, and/or orientation. The mission is ideally well intentioned, but recent incidents have led me to question the actions of these offices.

On May 3, Jeff Lyons wanted to distribute pocket-sized copies of the Constitution on his campus at Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts. As a Navy veteran, he takes his civil liberties very seriously and, with a nation that is so divided, he thought it was time to spread a message based upon constitutional rights and principles.

When a campus security officer approached Lyons and his fellow Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) members, they did not take it lightly. "You need to move to the bridge," the officer told the Bunker Hill students. Lyons and his friends continued to distribute copies of the Constitution and refused to let their right to free speech be stifled. The following week, the students received a formal notice from the college claiming that they violated the Code of Conduct.

Both the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education notified the college about their unconstitutional speech codes and ordered it to change the codes or expect litigation in their near future.

Lyons is not the sole student to face these unruly policies enforced by politicized administrators. At Los Angeles (Calif.) Pierce Community College, YAL student Kevin Shaw was distributing pocket Constitutions to gamer support for his club to become recognized officially by the college. Because Shaw was not inside the free speech area, he was asked to leave campus unless he obtained a permit from the administration.

Interestingly enough, Los Angeles Pierce College publishes its free speech regulations on the back of the permit, but the only way to know that is by obtaining a permit in the first place at the Student Life Office--a prime example of how out of touch and dysfunctional these offices dedicated to enhancing the student experience have become. Yet, out-of-touch administrators are not a new fad sweeping college campuses. What has developed is the heightened...