Is Iowa State limiting the free speech of students? Some students think so. Given Iowa State’s recent rating as a “red light” school by the advocacy organization FIRE, the university has been receiving criticism both inside and out from the community for university policies.

Iowa State is catching heat for several policies, many of which ISU students may or may not know about. One issue that has constantly been under scrutiny is Iowa State’s policy of the use of campus facilities for public forum. This policy received a “yellow,” meaning it could potentially limit free speech, and FIRE claims it is overly restrictive.

“Generally speaking, any open area of a college campus should be an area of free debate,” said Samantha Harris, director of speech code research for FIRE. “College campuses should be open to demonstrations and free expression except as designated otherwise. The college has reasonable rights to have time, place and manner regulations that prevent demonstrations from interfering with classes and things like that.”

She was specifically referring to policies like the designated areas of free debate on campus that can be interpreted to limit free speech. According to the policy, the university reserves the right to time, place and manner regulations and has instated some regulations regarding demonstrations and public forum on campus.

“Generally speaking, any open area of a college campus should be an area of free debate,” Harris said. “A college campus should be open to demonstrations and free expression except as designated otherwise.”

However, the term “free-speech zone” does not necessarily apply to Iowa State, said Keith Bystrom of the University Council, who defended Iowa State’s policy.

Bystrom said the term free-speech zone is not entirely accurate. He claims he was misquoted in a recent article in a city paper as calling the areas free-speech zones when that is not how he defines them and that is not what he called them.

“They want the label and they use the label and they think even though I’m saying designated public forum, because that’s what our policy calls it, it’s easier to put a label on it because that label brings in a lot of other baggage around the conversation that me as the speaker in that case was trying not to talk about,” Bystrom said. “I wasn’t calling it a free-speech zone, I was calling it a designated public forum.”

He pointed out the issue with labeling things as free-speech zones is that the term carries a negative connotation that does not necessarily correlate with Iowa State’s policy. He wanted to explicitly define the differences between what is called a free-speech zone and what the university is calling areas of public forum.

“Our policy creates areas that are less regulated in outdoor areas, and even indoor areas where people can exercise free-speech activities,” Bystrom said.

The policy itself allows students to exercise free speech and engage in public forum in most areas on campus, excluding things such as classrooms, administrative offices, laboratories and maintenance closets. However,  there are several stipulations within the policy that can restrict it.

“We do encourage people to go [to public forum areas] when they have a free-speech activity because there is less opportunity to cause disruption on campus, but we don’t require that they do,” Bystrom said.

The policy outlines areas of public forum as south of the Campanile and next to the library where students do not have to give notice of activities, but they should notify the university ahead of time if it meets specific guidelines. In addition, the event cannot conflict with another event that is scheduled for the same time.

However, if students hope to engage in public forum in other areas of the campus, they have to abide by several guidelines as to not violate university policy. If the event will take place out of the forum area, students are required to file notice of the event 24 hours ahead of time if they will expect to have more than 50 people.

If the demonstration is greater than 50 people, will be assembling between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. or will be assembling within 100 feet of a classroom, they must seek approval three days ahead of time. Also, the event cannot conflict with another event scheduled at the same time and must have permission to use amplified equipment.

Students can also exercise free speech within buildings, but they must abide by specific guidelines. If the event obstructs classroom activities or disrupts classes, the university can cancel the event and public forum can be suspended by the university for university or university-approved purposes, according to the policy.

Although he could acknowledge the importance of maintaining order and preventing disruption of classes, Brandon Blue, junior in journalism and mass communication and president of ISUTV, is not entirely supportive of the policy because it could serve to limit people’s rights.

“I don’t believe that the ends justify the means,” Blue said. “I think that if anywhere along the way someone’s free speech right is violated, I think you’ve definitely lost something there. You’ve failed on a constitutional level.”

Frank LoMonte of the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy organization for free speech on college campuses, also considered relegated zones as overly restrictive of free speech, but is supportive of policies that are in place to prevent the disruption of classes.

“In the setting of speech on the campus of a public college, the legal standard that applies is probably some form of the Supreme Court’s Tinker v. Des Moines standard, meaning that a student can be disciplined only if his speech crosses the line into ‘substantial disruption’ of school,” he said. “This is an inexact standard, but it certainly means that speech is protected even if it is very annoying.”