Recent amendments to the University of Connecticut’s policies regarding amplified sound, sign posting and outdoor gatherings impact the timing and nature of permissible student protests as well as the degree of regulation university administrators hold over these activities.
“The updates were done to lend clarity while remaining content-neutral,” said University Spokesperson Stephanie Reitz. “UConn’s priority is to ensure the safety of students, employees and visitors while continuing our academic and administrative operations without disruption or interference. This allows us to provide students with the educational opportunities they have been promised while respecting the free speech rights of all who live, learn, visit and work on the campuses.”
Policy updates were instated this past summer in response to student protests calling for Palestinian solidarity and university divestment from military industries at the end of the Spring 2024 semester. Twenty-six current and former UConn students were arrested at the protest’s encampment, cited for noncompliance with existing policies.
“The university creates, reviews and revises its policies as needed with these priorities in mind, including in response to new or evolving circumstances that develop over time,” said Reitz.
While many critics have equated these changes to a wholesale ban on university protests, the reality of UConn’s policy alterations are more complex and context-dependent than a sweeping prohibition.
Sign Postage: Updated on June 27, 2024
Signs may not exceed 11” x 17” and may only be posted on “Designated Posting Areas” as enumerated on the UConn website. Lampposts, trees, and “any place that would impede ingress/egress” is barred from sign postage, the university website states. The use of chalk for political messaging is permitted provided spray chalk is not used, and chalking is not used on vertical surfaces or surfaces “inaccessible to rain,” states the UConn website.
Amplified Sound: Updated on Aug. 20, 2024
The use of amplified sound, including megaphones and amplifiers, is only permissible from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. during the week, and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. “Previously, amplified sound was allowed during the noon hour because at the time the policy was established, classes were not held during that time as they are now,” noted Reitz.
Outdoor Activities: Updated on Aug. 20, 2024
“The outdoor activities policy merges former policies, with the only expressly ‘new’ element being that UConn may direct groups to separate areas to create distance between them in the case of adjacent events or gatherings,” said Reitz. Under this provision, counter-protests may be relocated to avoid direct altercations between opposing groups.
University policy regarding the use of tents has additionally been expanded, with prior university approval required for the formation of encampments. The use of tents is limited to those areas specifically designated by UConn officials for a specifically agreed upon duration of time.
Since the in-person announcement of changes to the amplified sound policy by the Dean of Students Fany DeJesus Hannon before an Aug. 26 UConnDivest protest, several student activist groups have condemned the policy updates, which they view as restricting access to free speech and assembly.
In an Aug. 30 Instagram post, UConn Divest voiced their disapproval of the policy revisions, asserting that, “Through new and rewritten policy, the UConn administration has criminalized disruption in any form, criminalized music and megaphones, banned employee dissent, cracked down on posting signs, and strengthened disciplinary mechanisms.”
Tensions between administration and pro-Palestinian student groups has only escalated since the passage of these provisions, with UConn’s President Radenka Maric calling UConn Divest’s messaging “deeply wrong and dangerous,” after a Sept. 16 protest outside her office in Storrs, according to CT Insider.