The Associated Student Government has formed a task force titled FreeSpeechNU, meant to facilitate talks between students and administrators on policies surrounding political demonstrations.

FreeSpeechNU was founded last quarter as the response to the repainting of The Rock over Homecoming weekend, Henry Molnar, the founder of the initiative, said. Molnar, who is also ASG’s chief of staff, said he wanted to create a united space to guarantee protection on anonymous demonstrations and political speech regarding The Rock.

Last quarter, The Rock was painted with phrases including “F–k John Evans,” criticizing the University’s recent refusal to remove Evans’ namesake from certain campus buildings. The message was later painted over by the University, citing profanity.

“After seeing some concerns with the whole rock cover-up, I felt like there wasn’t a sufficient enough response from the student body, from ASG or from the administration,” Molnar said. “I just want to do something about it and as we started to dive more into it, just more and more free speech issues started to come up.”

The Weinberg senior also told The Daily that the task force is in the process of meeting with the administrators to ensure students’ rights to speech are being maintained and that there are specific policies in place to support them.

One problem with demonstration policies at NU, Molnar said, is that they are too broad. While The Rock is commonly used to display political speech, the only guidelines pertain to advertising issues, he said. Current regulations around The Rock do not outline any policies around political statements or profanity.

Intentional or not, ASG senator Daniel Rodriguez, said this vague language can be damaging for some student communities.

“We just want to make sure that we make (policy) that is specific, that it will be able to work for students and be able to work for the administration and (keep) everyone happy,” the Weinberg and SESP sophomore said.

FreeSpeechNU members have been meeting with Lucas Christain, assistant dean of students at the Office of Student Conduct, Molnar said. The group also plans to add more specific language to The Rock’s advertising policies.

Megan Radcliffe, who is a member of FreeSpeechNU, said it was important for ASG to advocate for student free speech through comprehensive legislation and communication with The University.

“The main sentiment shared by all students on campus is just (that) we deserve to have our voices heard, and not silenced by random specific regulations and gray areas,” the Bienen freshman said.

Still, Molnar and Rodriguez emphasized that participation by ASG was not enough.

For now, the task force is composed of ASG senators. However, they are actively looking for collaborations from other student groups and communities across campus to create larger input around legislation on free speech.

“We really want to open it up for everyone, because it seems like it should affect everyone and not just a certain few,” Rodriguez said.

In addition to talks with the University, the task force is collaborating with Medill freshman Zach Kessel to draft specific free speech legislation at a future ASG session. Kessel, who is a Daily columnist, submitted free speech legislation to ASG at a Jan. 15 meeting. It was postponed indefinitely, due to concerns the language was not comprehensive.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @yunkyomoonk

Related Stories:
– “F–k John Evans” painted on the rock referencing Sand Creek Massacre
– ASG debates over University’s repainting of The Rock, argues lack of Native American representation in resolution
– Northwestern students hold ceremony for Genocide Awareness Month