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Task force to determine SIUC demonstration policy

At the request of Chancellor Walter Wendler, Larry Dietz, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management, has formed a task force made of representatives from various University groups to review the SIUC demonstration policy and related issues, such as the designated Free Forum area.

The implementation of the task force has been partly in response to the troubles that SIUC student Marc Torney encountered last spring.

On March 19, SIUC student Marc Torney was charged with violating the Student Conduct Code by protesting the war in Iraq by the Student Center. The administration considered possible expulsion from the University for Torney. Torney was supported by students and staff of the University and ended up being cleared of all charges.

Dietz said the demonstration policy was already undergoing changes before incident took place.

"We were in the midst of reviewing this when the incident occurred at the end of the spring semester involving the demonstration over on the north side of the Student Center, which resulted in a good deal of press and the conduct code hearing [for Torney]," Dietz said. "The incident really brought this into focus, the chancellor asked me to formalize a task force to review the policy and try to move to agenda ahead."

The task force consists of 12 additional members aside from Dietz. It consists of groups from the A/P Council, Interim General Council, Civil Service Council, Media and Communications Resources, Faculty Senate, Facilities and Business Operations, Undergraduate Student Government, Student Judicial Affairs, Contracts and Grants, Student Development, Graduate Student Professional Council and Human Relations and Support.

Dietz let the groups pick the best representative of the group to join the task force. Some representatives chose to have alternate representatives in their place.

"It's basically up to those constituent groups to round out the task force, and I've simply accepted the names that they've given me," Dietz said. "I added to that list based upon the functional relationships of the individuals and the offices have with the demonstration policy."

The task force faces the issue of changing the current policy, which makes the majority of the campus a censorship zone. Among the challenges is getting the proposition done promptly. Members of the task force agree.

University spokeswoman Sue Davis, a representative for Media and Communications Resources, is serving as one of the members on the task force. She said the group is committed to carefully studying the issues and she hopes to complete the work in a timely manner.

Dietz has already met with the task force to review the current policy, review a draft of a revised policy and look over the policies of other public institutions in the state. Two more meetings are scheduled to discuss different approaches, come to an agreement on major points and eventually fine-tune the final document that will be submitted to the chancellor. The second meeting will be held Monday.

"The issues are going to be fairly clear," Dietz said. "We're going to take a look at our own policy, and we're going to compare it to what other institutions have typically done."