News-Letter

Media Credit: Laura Bitner [Click to enlarge]

The Office of Residential Life's strengthened enforcement of its policy regulating the content of posted advertisements in dorms has sparked debate over restrictions on student speech.

After failing to remove advertisements for their play that were deemed inappropriate by the Office of Residential Life and then banned in campus dormitories, the Buttered Niblets comedy group have been placed on suspension with ResLife for the remainder of the semester.

Shelly Fickau, director of ResLife, argued that in determining approval, signs and posters in dormitories are given fair evaluations.

"I look at it through the eyes of somebody who has to walk by it everyday. People have opinions all over the spectrum. I judge it from both ends," Fickau said.

The poster designed by the Buttered Niblets included the title of the play which read, "Sex: a.k.a. Wieners and Boobs." The Office of Residential Life concluded that the poster did not clarify that the phrase was indeed the title of the play, and thereby issued its ban.

Fickau explained that while the Buttered Niblets poster featured the line, "A play by Joe Lo Truglio, Michael Showalter and David Wain," there was too much space between these words and the play's title.

Students have expressed frustrations with the limitations posed by ResLife's stringent policies. Earlier in the fall, the Hopkins Organization for Programming was denied permission for a poster advertisement for a play entitled, "Laff Your Ass Off."

"I went to get approval and they didn't like the word `ass' in the title. It's hard enough to get people to come to events. They should give us the benefit of the doubt," senior Scott Rogowsky said.

To meet ResLife's standards, titles with objectionable material as determined by Fickau must have quote marks around them or must have the phrase, "the play," inserted immediately above them.

A look at the list of groups on suspension with ResLife reveals that matters of taste and sensibility are not necessarily what implicate organizations for posting their signs in the dorms. More often than not, according to Fickau, it is the placement of the signs in prohibited areas that leads to organizations being placed on suspension.

ResLife's official Postering/Publication Guide states, "Flyers, posters and notices may be hung on common area bulletin boards only. Anything posted in other locations will be removed and the group involved will be reported."

The page-long list of suspended groups includes the philanthropic organization Cooking 4 Love and Stepping Stone Ministries.

Still, other certain seemingly risqué advertisements have been given approval by ResLife in the past. Fickau recently endorsed one campus event entitled, "Condom Bingo," justifying her approval by citing an issue of education versus pure entertainment.

"Condom Bingo is an educational program promoting abstinence just as strongly as safe sex, not entertainment. We also take a sensitive and mature approach to our advertisements," she said.

Some students have speculated that ResLife's approach to signs posted in the dorms has become more stringent only recently.

According to Fickau, these ResLife policies have been in place since she assumed her position 10 years ago. However, while the policies themselves have not changed, she contended that their level of enforcement by ResLife has increased markedly.

The increased allowance for dorm-to-dorm access in recent years has allowed for a much more interactive campus experience for students, and what Fickau suggests would amount to increased exposure to each sign that they grant approval for. Fickau explained that this has required ResLife to "become more aware" of the material that is distributed throughout dormitories.

A different standard of suitability applies to what can be posted in the dorms than what may be distributed campus-wide. The constitutional right to free speech protects fliers and publications throughout the campus at large.

Fliers posted last year by the Objectivist Club, for example, featured an image taken from the controversial Danish cartoons of a Muslim man wearing a bomb for a turban. These were permitted on the designated bulletin boards throughout campus, but not in the dorms. Fickau said that when she considers posters, she decides what is appropriate based on what she thinks students would want to see, or would be comfortable seeing, when they come home at the end of each day. From her perspective, strong political or religious statements, as well as sexually explicit material, are not included in that category.

Rogowsky objected to the multiple rules regulating the placement of posters.

"If it's something that gets students involved in the community, it should be promoted as much as possible. If it's relegated to a corner of the room where no one checks, what's the point?" Rogowsky said.

Groups that are reported usually receive suspensions ranging in length from just two weeks to entire semesters. During their suspensions, these groups are prohibited from posting materials in the dormitories. Repeated violations may result in ResLife's notification of the appropriate authorities that oversee the groups' activities and designate their funding.

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