Rice issues restrictions on campus protests, poster displays

By Sarah Knowlton     9/10/24 11:55pm

Rice policy now allows all faculty and staff to remove posters and restricts the permitted times and locations for public demonstrations. The changes went into effect Aug. 30, according to an announcement from Kelly Fox, executive vice president for operations, finance and support.

Other universities are enacting similar policies as campuses brace for students’ return, just months after protests about the war in Gaza swept the nation — including Rice, where students erected a two-day “liberated zone.” In June, administrators at the University of Pennsylvania banned encampments. In July, Harvard University was reportedly in talks to also ban overnight camping, as well as chalking and unapproved signage.

Critics across the country have decried universities’ new policies, claiming they violate free speech rights. Rice’s new chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, released its first public statement denouncing the changes to both policies.

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“The new policies impose limits on speech and assembly, consequently discouraging and foreclosing political and ethical expression,” the statement, posted to Instagram Aug. 31, reads. “If Rice is following other universities’ efforts nationally to silence students, staff and faculty seeking to end the genocide in Palestine, then we must remonstrate these new policies.”

Policy 820, which regulates campus demonstrations and protests, now states that events may only take place between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and can last no longer than eight hours per day. Multi-day demonstrations are restricted to three days. Prior versions of the policy stated that potential demonstrations must be submitted for approval at least 48 hours prior to the event, but has no specific limits regarding time or place.

The majority of new changes to Policy 820, including rules on use of amplified sound and guidelines on how to report policy violations, are intended to codify “existing standards” that Rice had previously implemented on a case-by-case basis, according to Fox.

Policy 856, which regulates posters and signage around campus, has also been changed to state that any Rice employee is now authorized to remove posters that violate rules on placement and formatting. Employees are not allowed to remove posters based on content. The guidelines previously stated that posters could only be removed by the school of study in which the poster is placed or the staff of that building. 

When asked by the Thresher why it was necessary to authorize more employees to remove posters, Fox stated that the changes are “an example of clarifying and simplifying the [existing] policy.”

Policy 856 was first issued Feb. 27 to standardize the university’s “loosely established” poster rules, restricting poster displays to only bulletin boards and designated spaces like select college commons. At the time, Fox told the Thresher that administrators were working on additional guidelines to regulate campus signage in shared spaces.

Matti Haacke, a representative for Rice Students for Justice in Palestine, said that the organization considers the regulations to be overly restrictive. 

“These policies completely strip any semblance of a right to protest on campus, giving administration complete control by allowing disciplinary action to be deployed on anyone who publicly expressed their views if so desired,” Haacke, a Sid Richardson College senior, wrote in a message to the Thresher. “This constraint is one of the most strict across universities as many have tried to rework their similar policies.

“These new policies are so clearly targeted against pro-Palestinian advocacy,” Haacke continued. “They are trying to scare us, but we are not scared. We will not let this stop us. We will continue to fight, until all our demands are met.”

Fox said that the new policy changes, designed with input from faculty leaders over the summer, will not infringe on students’ freedom of expression.

“We believe the [approval] process will become more transparent, and that personal expression should and will continue to occur, which is vital for the critical dialogues on a campus,” Fox wrote.

Other Policy 820 changes stipulate that demonstrations may take place in a university-approved location, which the policy states will most likely be the central quad, Ray Courtyard, the Hindman Garden adjacent to the RMC and the corner of the academic quad to which the Founder’s Memorial has been relocated.

The policy also allows the use of amplified sound from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. unless the sound is deemed to be disrupting university activities or in violation of the City of Houston’s regulations on noise level. The city ordinance may be enforced by RUPD, as well as by city officials.

“The University may immediately terminate any unauthorized event, including an unapproved Demonstration or a Demonstration that violates its Approval Notice or this policy,” the policy reads. “Moreover, Eligible Persons or Responsible Persons who hold or participate in an unapproved Demonstration, or participate in violating its Approval Notice, may be subject to disciplinary action and be held liable for any damages.”

As for Policy 856, new rules now outline a process for filing complaints about posters violating either the postering policy or “Rice’s nondiscrimination guidelines.”

“We were made aware of some issues with individuals filing complaints about posters. The primary concerns were about placement and content,” Fox wrote. “There were some posters that did not contain the identifying information necessary to update the individual or group that the poster was removed.”

Fox said both policies’ changes were prompted by feedback from community members expressing confusion over the policy’s preexisting guidelines.

“Over the spring semester, we heard from many in our community that parts of these policies were not clear and this led to misunderstanding by both those engaging in relevant activities and those observing what was allowed,” Fox wrote in an email to the Thresher. “Our policies were not clear, resulting in confusion and questions.”

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