Amid concerns from the Cornell community about the University’s Interim Expressive Activity Policy, the Student Assembly unanimously passed Resolution 58 on Feb. 22, which called for the policy’s suspension. The S.A. requested that the University suspend this policy until a process for formal consultation with the University assemblies is finalized.
Introduced on Jan. 24 to regulate expressive activity on campus, the Interim Expressive Activity Policy restricts the use of amplified sound, expects registration for all indoor events and outdoor events with more than 50 people in certain community spaces and prohibits postering on trees or outside structures, among other regulations.
Members of the S.A. previously expressed concerns about the limitations of free expression on campus, with many speaking out at the Feb. 15 meeting.
Resolution 58 describes the S.A.’s intentions to introduce means for undergraduate constituents to effectively solicit feedback and engage in discussion about the interim policy prior to the end of the 2024 Spring semester. It also calls for the policy to be suspended until a process for formal consultation with the Cornell assemblies is agreed upon.
The shared governance of Cornell is made up of the Employee Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, the S.A., the University Assembly, the constituent-elected members of the Board of Trustees and the Faculty Senate, which contribute to the school’s legislative process.
According to the Office of the Assemblies’ home page, the assemblies “formally advise the administration and recommend changes to policies through legislative processes articulated in their respective charters.”
However, multiple Cornell assemblies including the S.A. and Faculty Senate have claimed they were not adequately consulted in the creation of the Interim Expression Activity Policy. Faculty Senate member Prof. Risa Lieberwitz, industrial and labor relations, spoke on this lack of consultation in an interview with The Sun.
“There should have been a lot more recognition that the existing governance bodies of the Faculty Senate and the S.A. and the Employee Assembly were not consulted, and instead this full-blown interim policy was brought to the University Assembly as basically a fait acommpli” Lieberwitz said.
Prior to the public announcement of the policy, the executive committees of each of the assemblies, which includes the president and vice presidents, were chosen to provide consultation on behalf of their entire governing bodies, according to Resolution 58.
This occurred in a 60-minute meeting, in which only the six executive committee members of the total 31 current members of the S.A. were allowed to be present. The other assemblies allegedly faced similar instances of selective representation.
Resolution 58 states: “The confidential nature of this process with stakeholders chosen by the University deeply undermines the spirit of collaboration and representative participation that undergirds the half-century-old system of shared governance.”
In addition to concerns regarding the underutilization of the shared governance system, Resolution 58 includes concerns about ambiguity in the interim policy and limitations of free expression on campus due to the policy.
“The Interim Expressive Activity Policy states that it will be enforced through ‘the appropriate office for disciplinary action,’” the resolution reads. “[It] does not specify the penalties for breaking the rules.”
This particular discrepancy has been called into concern lately as students faced disciplinary action for Cornell for Mutual Liberation’s “Walk Out To a Die In” protest on the Ag Quad on Feb. 8, in which protesters used megaphones inside academic buildings.
At the Feb. 15 meeting, S.A. President Patrick Kuehl ’24 noted an unclear application of expression policies.
“The [alleged] difference is that this protest used amplified sound, and that’s [never] been allowed,” Kuehl said, referring to the potential disciplinary intervention of students. “But if you look at photos of protests from earlier this year, [other] protesters had megaphones and none of [them] were silenced.”
In the face of these concerns, the S.A. has ultimately recommended the suspension of the interim policy.
“This interim policy appears to be in direct reaction to the rise of protest[s], rallies and demonstrations on the Ithaca campus,” the resolution states. “[This policy] creates a chilling effect among the Cornell community.”
Correction, March 5, 8:55 a.m.: A previous version of this article misquoted one phrase from Prof. Risa Lieberwitz. The article has been corrected, and The Sun regrets this error.