CSUMB tries to revamp onerous policy that could chill free speech.

In late March, on the campus of CSU Monterey Bay, a group of students held what’s become an annual event: SlutWalk. The proceeding and its admittedly in-your-face name seeks to “empower, honor and support” those who have been sexually harassed and let victims know they’re not alone.

In about 80 days, CSUMB faculty members who are now in a 100-day countdown to the end of their contract on June 30 may find themselves striking – which might include picket lines, chanting, bullhorns and other public displays of union solidarity.

Under a little-known but existing policy that CSUMB administrators are trying to revamp and update, both types of demonstrations could be prohibited under the guise of protecting rights and freedoms.

The Facilities Use Policy, as it’s called, is an 11-page document generated by the university’s Policy Facilitation Team. Such policies are supposed to sunset after five years if they’re not updated; a version of this one was passed in 2006.

Another problem: Apparently nobody on the university’s Academic Senate, which was presented with the 11-page document on April 14 and let it die without a motion (meaning it gets sent back to the facilitation team for reworking), remembers passing the 2006 version.

The new plan discusses what’s acceptable for posting flyers all the way to defining what’s acceptable expression. The nebulous definition of what’s unacceptable: “Any activity that prevents students and other members of the university community from attending classes, completing class work, using any university facility, attending or experiencing any scheduled campus event or activity or conducting university-related business in and with campus offices and officials.”

Prohibited activities that might fit the bill, the draft policy states, include but aren’t limited to blockades of entrances through “sit ins,” picketing that makes it hard for people to pass and speaking, changing, singing, clapping or stomping feet.

Under those definitions, both SlutWalk and union picketing could be banned.

Violations are misdemeanors under the state Education Code and could constitute a crime under the California Penal Code, according to the draft.

“Some people thought perhaps this was a statewide response to ethnic studies rallies going on on certain campuses. It’s in keeping with an attitude that’s statewide,” says Steven Levinson, president of the California Faculty Association at CSUMB and a media arts instructor. “But one of our questions is, ‘What is this a response to?’ We haven’t seen any problem, so where is this coming from?”

CSUMB President Eduardo Ochoa, who attended the packed Academic Senate meeting, agrees: “We need to realize we have been living with this policy for eight years and none of the dire scenarios have come to pass. That should give us a little perspective.

“What happened here is that the policy team went about doing a routine revision, they made an innocent decision to pull in an appendix that was already there, and it inadvertently shone a spotlight on something that would have been objectionable.”

The draft has already attracted the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. Michelle Welsh, attorney and chair of the ACLU’s legal committee for the Monterey County chapter, sent a letter to the Academic Senate that the proposed policy adopts a negative view of free expression, with an overall tone that’s discouraging to those seeking to protest or demonstrate on campus.

What happens next: The Academic Senate has asked that one faculty member and a student representative be added to the policy team. And next, the campus will hold a series of public meetings to discuss the ramifications of the plan and gather input.

“We think there will be a revision of the revision,” Ochoa says. “I find the tone of the guidelines in the old policy problematic. It sounds harsh and punitive and I don’t think the tone is reflective of our culture and values.”

Props go to CSUMB’s Otter Realm newspaper and its editor, Erin Hawkins, for being the first to cover this. I only found out about it because someone dropped a copy of the student newspaper on my desk. Seems free speech on and around campus can be a very enlightening thing.

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com, or follow her on twitter.com/maryrduan.