A student at U Albany has a few words with a Resident Assistant:
… When a student living on Indian Quad attempted to post a satirical representation of the definition of Chartwells food service on his door on the evening of September 22, his Resident Assistant forced him to remove the sign. He told the student that the sign was “inappropriate” and was “defacing school property” and thus “needed to be taken down.” The student complied…
Although I am not a resident of Indian Quad, as a witness and a fierce advocate of the First Amendment I felt compelled to question the Resident Assistant’s request, even if the resident didn’t want to. How could the R.A. censor this student’s opinion by forcing him to take down the sign? I waited for the Assistant to finish speaking with a separate resident and then questioned his knowledge of the First Amendment. The response? “The First Amendment doesn’t apply here. The sign was defacing school property, and that violates the Community Rights and Responsibilities Agreement.” When I reminded him that Chartwells wasn’t even part of the University (it is a third party entity contracted solely for food service), and thus any satirical criticism of it was not defacing school property the Assistant seemed uninterested. “I decide what is appropriate and what can go up [on the doors],” the Res Life student replied. I then turned around and pointed to the suite door directly behind me.
A picture of a man’s face with male genitalia drawn over it was prominently taped up for all to see.
“Is this appropriate to you?” I questioned. “If someone were to have a problem with it I would have to remove it,” the Assistant replied. “What about the profanity written on people’s doors, do you find that appropriate?” I countered. The Res Life Assistant gave the same response. “So essentially,” I concluded, “you would rather have genitalia and profanity on doors and walls than criticism of Chartwells?” The Assistant’s unequivocal response? “Yes.”
UD thanks Brad for the link.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:59PM
Um…is the Res Ass getting some sort of kickback from the food people?
If not, then why the heck did this fiasco happen?
October 15th, 2009 at 2:21PM
> getting some sort of kickback from the food people
I think you can be pretty sure the university is, yes. Most universities now contract their food services to a small oligarchy of international food service chains (Aramark, Marriott, Chartwells), and the universities don’t do it for the educational value those companies provide.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:48PM
BTW, FIRE is already looking at this case:
http://www.thefire.org/article/11185.html
October 16th, 2009 at 7:07AM
There are way too many of these little proto-tyrants gravitating to residence and student life offices.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:44PM
I call this genre of journalism "my favorite martinet".