COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Student Privacy
Court showdown today over military recruiting
Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
12/5/06
A question before the U.S. Supreme Court today is whether colleges'free-speech rights are violated by a law that could allow the
government to withhold money from schools that limit military
recruiters' access to campus.
But even as the justices consider whether the law violates the First
Amendment, anti-war groups say administrators on campuses nationwide
are infringing on students' rights to protest.
Six students at Hampton University in Virginia were assigned to do
community service for their role in a demonstration last month against
the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Seven had faced
expulsion; none was expelled, university officials said Friday.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is investigating whether a student
anti-war group vandalized property and intimidated people outside the
Military Science building. Students were told they could be expelled.
Campus police clashed with counter-recruitment activists this semester
at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts and Harold Washington
College in Chicago. And campus police at Kent State in Ohio and George
Mason University in Virginia each apprehended a student protesting
military recruiters, though disciplinary actions against those
students were dropped or canceled.
Though those cases represent extremes, "lots of students have to deal
with lots of red tape" to organize rallies or protests, says Chris
Schwartz, 25, a senior political science major at the University of
Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and a member of the Campus Anti-War
Network (CAN), which has members on about 100 campuses.
Today, CAN members plan local actions tied to the court case, in which
a group representing about 30 law schools argues that current law
forces schools that want federal funding to accept the
Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which allows gays to serve
in the armed forces only if they keep their sexual orientation to
themselves. Because that conflicts with anti-discrimination policies
on many campuses, the group argues, the schools' free-speech rights
are violated.
On campuses where students face reprimands, administrators say they're
not stifling speech. In a statement Friday, Hampton University
officials said the students were punished for failing to register a
protest. "The University certainly permits peaceful protests; however,
all policies and procedures must be adhered to," the statement said.
The UW says investigating a complaint is standard procedure.
Paul Pryse, 19, a UW sophomore facing discipline, doubts he'll be
expelled. Still, he says, any rebuke has a chilling effect. "They're
trying to send a warning that we should pipe down, back off."
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