c/banned-on-campus

Warning: my campus club got shut down for trying to host a debate on the 2020 election results.

We reserved a room at the student union in Madison, but the admin pulled our permit 48 hours before, saying the topic 'posed a risk to student safety' and we had to cancel the whole thing.

My friend at UC Berkeley got a formal warning for a flyer about a debate.

They put up a flyer for a talk on free speech itself, with a quote from a controversial author. The student activities office said the quote 'could cause distress' and made them take it all down. It made me realize how even talking about speech can get shut down. Has anyone seen rules about flyers get this strict at other schools?

Reading a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression showed me a big jump in campus speaker disinvitations.

I was looking at their 2023 numbers and saw that 113 speaker events faced serious attempts to shut them down. That's up from 63 just five years before. It made me think about how often a loud group can stop a talk before it even happens. Has your school had a speaker canceled recently?

I counted 17 speaker disinvites at big colleges this past year

I was reading a report and saw that number. It surprised me because a few years back it was maybe half that. Most were for political talks, but some were about science or history topics. One case at a school in California was about a talk on ancient Rome that got pulled. It feels like the line for what gets a 'no' keeps moving. Has your campus had a speaker canceled for a reason that seemed really thin?

A professor at my old school got in trouble for a guest speaker last month

They had a former journalist come talk about media bias, but the administration canceled it the day before. The official reason was a 'scheduling conflict', but the professor told our alumni group it was over content concerns. Has anyone else seen a talk get pulled like that recently?

My professor told me to drop a talk on campus free speech and I'm glad I didn't listen

Last semester at UC Berkeley, my poli sci professor said our student group's planned panel with a conservative journalist would 'cause disruption' and advised me to cancel it. We held it anyway, and over 200 people showed up for a civil debate. The admin tried to move us to a tiny room at the last minute, but we pushed back. Has anyone else had a professor try to shut down an event before it even happened?

They shut down a talk on campus history at my old school in Ohio

Back at Kent State, a professor tried to hold a public talk about the 1970 shootings from a local historian's view. The student government said it was 'too divisive' and pulled the room booking two days before. I was skeptical they'd really stop it, but seeing the official email canceling it over 'potential discomfort' convinced me. Has anyone else seen a talk get shut down for just being about tough history?

A flyer for a debate on free speech got me called into the dean's office

This was back in my junior year at a state school in Ohio. I helped make a simple flyer for a campus debate club event. The topic was 'Should all ideas get a hearing on campus?' We put them up on the bulletin boards in the student union. Two days later, I got an email from the Dean of Students asking me to come in. They said the flyer 'created a harmful environment' because it suggested some views currently not allowed might have value. They made me take every single one down, over 50 copies. The person I spoke to told me, 'We have to think about the impact, not just the intent.' It felt like we couldn't even ask the question. Has anyone else had a club event shut down before it even started for something like this?

I paid $75 for a permit to hold a debate on campus about zoning laws, and they still shut it down.

TIL my campus club spent $300 on a speaker who got shut down before he started

Our history club at State U pooled funds to bring a professor who wrote a book on post-war Japan, but the student government said his views on historical guilt were 'harmful' and blocked the room booking. We lost the deposit and the talk never happened, which felt like a real waste of student money meant for learning. Has anyone else had a guest speaker canceled over their academic opinions?

Back in '99 at my state school, they tried to stop a debate on the new internet rules.

The choice was simple: go along with the dean's request to cancel the event or hold it anyway off campus. We moved it to a coffee shop called The Daily Grind about a mile away. It felt strange, like we were doing something wrong just for wanting to talk about it. Anyone else have to move a whole event just to have a basic discussion?

Update: Saw a flyer for a campus debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict get taken down by a student group at UC Berkeley yesterday.

They said it was 'too divisive' for the quad, which seems like the exact opposite of what a university should be doing.

Changed my mind after buying a $300 campus event permit that got denied anyway.

I thought paying the fee meant we could hold a debate on a controversial book, but the student activities board said the topic was 'too divisive' and rejected our application, so what's the point of having a permit process if they can just veto the content?

My poli-sci professor said 'don't bother with the campus paper, they won't run your op-ed'. He was right. I wrote about the admin's new speech zone policy and they killed it, said it was 'too divisive'.

This was at my state school in Ohio last semester. The policy literally limits protests to a tiny patch of grass behind the library. I had the policy document, quotes from the student handbook, everything. The editor told me it 'could make people feel unsafe'. Not a single factual error, just an opinion they didn't like. So much for the marketplace of ideas. Anyone else have a piece spiked for just questioning a campus rule?

Got a $75 fine for handing out flyers about the tuition hike

They said it was 'unapproved solicitation' and campus security shut us down in under 10 minutes. Anyone else get hit with a random fee just for trying to organize?

Spent $40 on a 'Free Speech' t-shirt and got escorted out of the quad

Honestly, I wore it to a campus event and a dean said it 'created a hostile environment'. The shirt just had the First Amendment printed on it. Has anyone else been told a plain text quote is too disruptive?

A professor shut down my question about a banned book list in 2018

It was my junior year at a state school in the Midwest. I was in a modern lit class, and we were talking about a book that had been challenged in some high schools. I raised my hand and asked if the university library had ever made a list of books they chose not to carry, maybe for similar reasons. The professor, Dr. Ellis, got very quiet. He said, 'That's not a productive line of inquiry for this classroom,' and moved on fast. After class, I went to his office just to understand. He told me, 'Those records are internal. Pushing for them can make people look for trouble they don't need.' It felt like a clear message to drop it. I never did get an answer. Has anyone else been told that asking about a school's choices is itself a problem?

My friend's flyer got taken down for 'inciting debate' at our state school

He wanted to put up a simple flyer last Thursday for a discussion on free speech itself, just asking 'What can't we talk about here?'. Campus staff removed it within 2 hours, saying it was 'unapproved content likely to incite debate'. It was literally about having a conversation, lol. Has anyone else had something this basic get shut down for just asking a question?

My professor shut down a debate on campus free speech policies in my political science class

I brought up a Supreme Court case from 2017 about a public university's speech zone during a discussion, and the professor cut me off, saying the topic was 'too divisive' for a 200-level course. The next week, the syllabus had a new rule banning 'unplanned discussions of constitutional law.' Has anyone else had a class topic declared off limits like that?

Vent: Got my poster taken down at the campus free speech wall last week

I put up a flyer for a debate on the history of campus protests at my school in Ohio. It had a picture of a 1960s sit-in. Campus security took it down in under an hour, saying it 'could incite disruption' and wasn't approved. The official student government posters right next to it were fine. It wasn't even about a current event, just a historical discussion. Made me realize how vague the rules are about what counts as 'disruptive'. Has anyone else had a totally normal event flyer get removed like that?

Pro tip: I got around our campus flyer ban by printing them as 'art zines' and leaving them in the library.

The administration said our group's event posters were 'inflammatory', so we made 50 copies of a small booklet with the same info and called it a free publication. Has anyone else found a loophole like this when they shut down your flyers?

My cousin in Singapore said he couldn't even share a news article about a local protest on his social feed because the link was blocked.

He tried to post it to a student group chat at his university, and the whole message got flagged and removed. It made me think about how speech limits aren't always a loud 'no', sometimes they're just a quiet filter you don't see. Has anyone else run into that kind of silent blocking on campus?

The day they took down our flyers for a campus debate

Last semester at my state school, a student group put up posters for a debate on tuition costs. Campus staff removed them all, saying they needed 'prior approval' from an office that takes three weeks to answer. It felt less about rules and more about stopping the talk before it started. Has anyone else seen a simple event get shut down like that?

Serious question, is it normal for a campus to cancel a guest just for a past tweet?

My community college in Phoenix pulled a local historian from a talk because someone found a 2014 post of his criticizing a political candidate. The event was about railroad history, not politics. Has anyone else seen a speaker get shut down over old social media that had nothing to do with their scheduled topic?

Just realized flyers for a campus debate got pulled down overnight

My friend at State U was organizing a panel on zoning laws. Put up 30 flyers around the quad on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, all of them were gone. Campus facilities said they didn't remove them. The student activities office said the flyers 'lacked proper pre-approval for content'. The event was about housing policy, nothing extreme. This feels like a quiet way to stop a conversation before it starts. Has anyone else had an event shut down over a paperwork excuse?