President Michael Schill told University Faculty Senate leadership Tuesday morning that he will be placing the proposed Time, Place and Manner and Protection of Free Speech Policy on hold.
The original policy regulated the time, place and manner of protests students may hold in the future. Proponents of the policy said it would give students guidelines for what is allowed in a protest so events would not be judged arbitrarily on a case-by-case basis. Opponents of the policy said that it unnecessarily restricted their first amendment rights
According to an email sent to Senate President Bill Harbaugh and Vice President Chris Sinclair, Schill determined that more work had to be done to refine the policy.
“While I still believe that these rules are advisable to protect content neutrality,” Schill states in the email, “I am also convinced that we need to do more work in educating the community and building consensus around them.”
The Senate met the proposed policy with significant reluctance and planned to propose an alternative policy this spring. The University of Oregon does not have a clear set of guidelines to govern protests on campus. Instead, a combination of policies including the Facilities Scheduling and Freedom of Inquiry and Speech policies make up the standards for student protesters.
The TPM policy was attempting to combine the rules and regulations contained in these policies into one. Harbaugh does not believe that the university needs such a policy.
“The university has operated under the existing rules for six years now without any problems,” he told the Emerald last week.
The University Senate will host a town hall meeting on Feb. 23 to gather input from students and community members. The event will be held from 5-6:30 p.m. in PLC 180.