A small group of Southwestern College faculty, students and community members celebrated Martin Luther King Day with an act of civil disobedience to protest free speech restrictions on campus. Protesters collected signatures to recall three governing board members who voted to cut spring classes.
In defiance of the college's free speech policy, which limits petitioning to a covered patio in front of the cafeteria, protesters set up a table near the front door of the Student Center to register voters and collect recall signatures. They were met by a college employee who asked them to move to the Free Speech Area. Professor of Reading Robert Unger politely refused and said state and federal law allowed citizens to redress their government on public property. After a brief and calm discussion, the employee left.
Six days earlier, on the first day of classes for the spring semester, Nickolas Furr, a local writer and blogger, did not receive the same treatment. He was collecting signatures for the same campaign when he said he was confronted by a campus employee who claimed to have the authority to relegate Furr's petitioning to the Free Speech Area.
"I was lied to," said Furr. "And then ordered to move."
Southwestern College Education Association President Phil Lopez said the signature rally was in support of Furr and was a blessing in disguise. At the end of the first day the group collected about 150 signatures and registered about 20 students to vote. Members of the group said they considered the rally a success. While it is still unknown how many signatures total the campaign has collected, the group has until May 3 to collect 20,000 signatures for each governing board member.
Unger, a licensed attorney, said the college did not have the right to limit the signature campaign to its small, narrowly- drawn Free Speech Area.
"The faculty and concerned citizens and other members of the community are here today outside the free speech zone gathering petitions under their First Amendment right to petition the government for redress or grievances, and we are in an area where we are not causing disruption of classes," he said.
Faculty members have scoffed at the policy, calling it unconstitutional and have had a lawyer standing by their "illegal" signature table.
The action comes about two-and-half months after four college professors were barred from campus for allegedly leading a student rally against class cuts out of the campus designated free speech zone. The suspensions drew national media attention, which eventually pressured college administrators to drop their threats to prosecute the professors.
Interim Student Activities Coordinator James Bond said the faculty members running the petition campaign had to fill out a registration form and were allowed to collect signatures outside the free speech zone for unknown reasons. Bond was the campus employee who confronted Furr six days earlier, he said, on order of a superior that he declined to name. He said the same thing happened when the faculty set up their signature table, but this time the administrator said to leave the faculty alone and only make them fill out a registration form. He insisted Furr was not being singled out. Bond said he gets calls from administrators, campus police, students and even some faculty when strangers come to campus seeking signatures.
"It's not Nick," said Bond. "If anybody is out there filling petitions, I will find out what they are doing, get their information, and either let them stay, they'll move them, or they'll have to do it another day."
Bond said California law states that community college's had the legal right to police ballot petitioners on campus. He also said it was about safety, so students were not giving their personal information to non-sanctioned ballot petitioners. While Bond said faculty members were allowed to petition out of the free speech zone that day, he could not be certain what the enforcement would be in the future, for Furr or the faculty.
Furr said that Bond had told him that he would not be allowed to petition outside of the free speech zone if he came back on his own.
Rudy Munoz, a political science major, said that about 20 people he knew were having problems finding a class. He signed all three recall petitions.
"Some of us are on waiting lists," said Munoz. "If we can't get a class we have to stay here longer because we can't transfer to a university."
Robert McCallister, a registered voter but not a SWC student who was on campus that day, did not sign the petition. He said very few people who sign petitions are educated on the issues surrounding the petition. He called it a "mob mentality."
"Anyone can put their name on a page," said McCallister. "And you don't actually have to believe in it."
SWC officials have said that they are working to review and change the college's free speech policy, titled SWC Freedom of Expression Policy 5550. The task force was formed in fall but has made no announcements yet.
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