I thought I'd hold off on a few of these for a while, lest all 25 subscribers think that this space has become exclusively negative.
Everybody in student life, especially those of us in SGA, want UMBC students to take "ownership" of the campus. We'd love for everybody to have the kind of experiences that David Hoffman frequently describes. Unfortunately it seems that not all parts of the campus support that goal - in some cases even actively suppressing student demonstrations of campus ownership.
One such event happens nearly every year. A few brave artistic students decide to create chalk paintings around a residence hall - their home at UMBC. The next morning, as students are busy taking pictures and wondering about the mysterious artists, an email arrives from a Community Director. The gist of the message is always the same: "Lovely art, but remember that in your community living guide, chalking is prohibited."
Is that the message we should be sending at UMBC? "Lovely expression of campus ownership, but unfortunately we don't allow that here." How can we spend valuable resources begging students to get involved with UMBC, only to turn around and trample them when they do?
UMBC has taken a very proactive approach to campus policy, an approach that says, "we will use policy to prevent problems from occurring." I think we could stand to have a more reactive policy, one that says, "we will use policy to eliminate problems if they do occur." Chalking hateful messages around a resident hall would certainly be a problem - but isn't somebody's chalk art a positive community message? Is it really fair to students to destroy the positive just because there is the possibility of negative?
I would love to see students decorate True Grit before a game, or put a festive Santa hat on Walter Sondheim for the holidays. I also wonder how fast such a demonstration of campus ownership would be removed...
3 comments:
It does seem very unfortunate that some aspects of our school seem to take the easy way out of problems that come with diversity and divergent views. Instead of the classic and responsible response to negative speech of more speech, university policy often seems to dictate censorship. This is only a temporary "solution" aside from the negative feeling students receive from it. And when someone gets mad enough and sues for a violation of first amendment rights for having their chalking erased on public property or a message on their dorm room door taken down, we have an even more negative situation than if "policy" wasn't to just take the easy way our and censor everything.
Ok,
You guys need someone to be really honest with both of you. Get over it. Get over it all. Make things happen! You guys are both smart, involved and active fellows, so show people what you are. Fill this blog up with movement, actions, and things that have happened. Everytime I feel shitty, I go to this blog, because I know one of you will make me feel great because I am no longer attending the "hell hole" that both of you describe as "UMBC". UMBC is an amazing place, and yes, of course, you are allowed to complain about stuff. But, the SGA isn't for complainers, it is for doers. Also, don't complain on a blog, complain to an administrator and then post the successful triumphant story on the blog, so students know what is going on.
A post such as "UMBC: Its Own Worst Enemy", is the equivalent of not wearing a flag pin. Stop being fun-killers. Keep chalking, and keep making this school better.
Has anyone thought about setting up a meeting with reslife to discuss changing the policy? I know that they are usually willing to talk with students openly about such things.
Also, as far as free expression goes, student groups are more than welcome to chalk on academic row, as long as they put in a reservation with scheduling first, and then it's completely legit. Lots of weeks go by when academic row is completely bare. I'd like to see some of these students reserve academic row for chalking on a random week when there's nothing else going on and just have fun with it.
That being said, I know not everyone is part of a student group.
Wouldn't it be neat if there were students on campus who actually listened to other student complaints and then went out and did something about it?!
All I can say is, Gandhi was right. Be the change you wish to see at UMBC. Policies like this are in place because someone did something hateful, and then no one ever bothered to fight the umbrella policy created to keep that hate out of UMBC.
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