UConn’s Student Speech Failure  

The University of Connecticut is remembering a watershed moment in campus student activism with a new exhibition created by the Archives & Special Collections in the Richard Schimmelpfeng Gallery, located at The Dodd Center for Human Rights according to UConn Today. 

“Please Respond Personally: Commemorating the 1974 Black Student Sit-in” revolves around a student sit-in at the Wilbur Cross building – which  was previously the University’s main library – on April 22 of 1974. The sit-in resulted in arrests the next morning for more than 200 students who would not leave the building.  

The takeover of the Wilbur Cross Library was a form of direct action taken by Black UConn students in April 1974. It came after several peaceful protests and demands from Black students, who were led by the Organization of African American Students, as a part of a larger campaign focused on increasing resources and representation for students of color.  

The Daily Campus Editorial Board celebrates the exhibit’s commemoration of student activists. Moreover, we hope this exhibit refreshes students’ memory about UConn’s legacy of radical activism and inspires them to challenge the trend of pacifying student speech. 

In the aftermath of the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 there has been a collective chilling of student-speech across college campuses nationwide; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was one of several institutions that have suspended student groups for violations of campus protest rules, Columbia University has suspended both Jewish and Palestinian groups and Stanford University threatened to take disciplinary action against students who occupied a campus plaza for nearly four months. 

Though less flagrant in its suppression of student speech, UConn has been no exception; In December, according to reporting from The Daily Campus, administrators at the University of Connecticut discussed removing one of the iconic spirit rocks numerous times after it became an outlet for student expression about Israel and Palestine following Oct. 7. As the Editorial Board has discussed previously, we view increased regulation of the Spirit Rock as a way to curtail student speech by coaxing it through official, university approved channels.  

Another way the university attempts to preemptively influence speech is by setting stringent regulations for student assembly. According to Student Union guidelines, any event sponsored by a registered student organization must be planned in advance in collaboration with Division of Student Activities or Student Union officials. Quick Response Events (QRE), which are significant university events that are likely to elicit a strong, immediate response from the UConn community — a strange euphemism for student protests.  

Student Union guidelines place the onus on student groups to “contact and work directly with the Associate Director for Event Services to plan a QRE event with an expedited timeline,” which “does not guarantee space availability.” It is absurd to expect that students rapidly organizing a protest in response to “a violent or bias incident of significance to our community… a natural disaster” or other urgent situations would go through formal bureaucratic processes. But the utility of this red tape is that administrators can set the ground rules of student protest, most of which is contrary to the administration’s interests.  

It is not just through administrative efforts that UConn has found ways to curtail student speech, reaching those in power at UConn for open dialogue can prove to be a challenge. Earlier this semester university President Radenka Maric announced that she would be holding office hours according to reporting from the Daily Campus. However, the limited, 15-minute time slots offered from 8-10 a.m. filled up before many students even learned of this opportunity. 

This is another example in the long line of frustrating contradictions from UConn, in one breath they will celebrate the student-activists of the past, while in the next  they take away resources from this generation of student-activists.