[Travis Houtz]

Hi Katie,

I just had the pleasure of coordinating Created Equal’s presence on campus this past spring(in april, of course). We are also a public university. We were able to say no to the electronic trailer/screen to be placed on a green space, but offered them a parking lot alternative that they didn’t end up using. In the end, they chose to drive the trailer around campus instead of placing it on green space.?

When they visited our campus, they also had multiple free-standing “sandwich” boards that carried much of the same content on the jumbotrons. They were placed all over the green space that they requested. I would expect the same.

I currently coordinate expressive events from a logistics point of view only; I don’t develop any of the policy or come through with the knowledge in 1st amendment activities. If you would like to see a copy of our policy referring to expressive events, you can take a look here: 701-003-expressive-activities-policy.pdf (ship.edu)

From my experience, outside of the content of the event, they were very communicative and, fortunately, worked very well with me. They were very forthcoming in their purpose and practices from what it seemed. I’d recommend coordinating with campus safety as early as possible to ensure all involved parties have safety in mind and so they can coordinate any response they need to. If you need assistance in the response piece, I’d also recommend your equity office. Our AVP was able to communicate with our general counsel about the legalities regarding our response to their equipment requests.?

Hope this helps!

Travis

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Travis Houtz
Associate Director, Ceddia Union Building, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Shippensburg University
Shippensburg PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-26-2022 13:40
From: Katie Beaulieu
Subject: Free Speech/ External Users on Campus

Hello colleagues,

We were just approached by the pro-life, nonprofit external group Created Equal, which is a pro-life group who wants to bring a “jumbotron” on campus to promote their viewpoints. They want to place a reservation for one of our greenspaces, which is typical for external users especially in the fall.

They weren’t forthcoming on the content in their inquiries but we were able to find more details on their website: https://www.createdequal.org/jumbotron-tv/. We are concerned about the graphic nature of the content but also wanting to recognize the 1st Amendment aspect of this, especially as a public university.

Does anyone have experience with this group or something similar? Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Katie

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Katie Beaulieu
Director, Student Center
Wayne State University
Detroit MI
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[tpmoore]

As a public institution, you are a state actor, which means you must adhere to the 1st amendment that you cannot prohibit speech/expression from taking place.? You can have guidelines that are content-neutral for a speaker/organization to follow.? However, you cannot make decisions based on the content of the expressive activity.? Time, place, and manner restrictions must be applied without regard to content.? Expression that is “graphic” “distasteful”, “hurtful” and even “hateful” is protected under the 1st amendment.

Two resources:
My presentation presented at the ACUI conference on Expressive Activity on Campus? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62daaf6f509a8534f14659c0/t/62dc542676533a2cfeceb989/1658606650416/Expressive+Activity+on+Campus+2022.pdf

University of Louisville Free Speech website? https://louisville.edu/freespeech

Free free to contact me at tpmoore@me.com for greater insights

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Tim Moore
Chief of Staff/ Assistant to the Vice Provost of Student Affairs
University of Louisville
Louisville KY
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——————————————-
Original Message:
Sent: 08-26-2022 13:40
From: Katie Beaulieu
Subject: Free Speech/ External Users on Campus

Hello colleagues,

We were just approached by the pro-life, nonprofit external group Created Equal, which is a pro-life group who wants to bring a “jumbotron” on campus to promote their viewpoints. They want to place a reservation for one of our greenspaces, which is typical for external users especially in the fall.

They weren’t forthcoming on the content in their inquiries but we were able to find more details on their website: https://www.createdequal.org/jumbotron-tv/. We are concerned about the graphic nature of the content but also wanting to recognize the 1st Amendment aspect of this, especially as a public university.

Does anyone have experience with this group or something similar? Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Katie

——————————
Katie Beaulieu
Director, Student Center
Wayne State University
Detroit MI
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