Wednesday, Oct. 14, students at the College of William and Mary gathered for a protest workshop hosted by the College’s Student Assembly, Public Safety and Student Unions and Engagement in the Sadler Center. The event was designed to inform community members about ways to safely and responsibly exercise their First Amendment rights.
The workshop opened with a presentation from Associate Vice President of Student Engagement and Leadership Mike Patterson and Associate Director of Student Unions and Engagement Simón Franco.
Patterson began by emphasizing the importance of student advocacy and free speech in fostering an engaged academic community.
“If you look at the history of higher education, the student voice has always been at the center of advancing knowledge,” he said. “That means challenging what we understand and know as current knowledge and also challenging and understanding your own perspectives on how the world works.”
Patterson said he sees his job as an administrator as helping facilitate student free speech, including protests, while fulfilling obligations to protect both First Amendment rights and campus code of conduct rules.
Franco described the legal restrictions on free speech the College can enact.
“Those are in two broad categories: by content or by time, place and manner,” he said.
Patterson said administrators want to help students utilize their free speech while highlighting why consequences may exist.
Franco noted that, in addition to state and federal statutes on free speech, the College has its own rules for students and organizations that hold protests and other events.
“It is not a mandate to tell the university in advance that you intend to do an expressive activity event,” he said. “We think you should. We will help you navigate [laws and university policy], but it is not required.”
Patterson said the primary College policy guiding responses to student-organized events relates to disruptions of the campus learning environment. This includes disturbing classes, students in their dorms or travel across campus.
When students or organizations violate these policies, they may be subject to review from Student Accountability and Restorative Practices or further legal consequences.
“Ultimately, if you’re doing something that’s going to break the law or if you do something that violates the rights of other students, that’s going to put you in a situation where the behavior associated with free speech is now in conflict with conduct policy,” Patterson said.
Patterson and Franco also discussed counter-protests and protests organized in response to campus events. Such protests may not interrupt or disrupt access to the originating event, nor can they overpower it via sound.
“It feels constraining in some ways, but what we’re really trying to start with is how to maximize your voice without getting in trouble,” Patterson said. “And if you choose to get in trouble, at least be informed that you are making a decision to get in trouble.”
Director of Student Leadership Development Anne Arseneau ’89 M.A.Ed ’92 then described recent changes to Student Assembly’s referendum process. Under the new system, students may propose referendums either as a General Election Referendum or an Emergency Referendum.
General Election Referendums must be submitted with 250 verified signatures at least 21 days before the fall or spring general elections. Emergency Referendums can be submitted at any time with 500 verified signatures and will be put up for a vote no earlier than 21 days after submission.
New policies also allow SA’s Independent Elections Commission to work with petitioners to ensure referendum language is clear and unbiased.
“Thinking about who’s ultimately going to get the results of the petition, it’s probably going to be university leaders that have been experts on how to ask research questions in an unbiased way,” Patterson said. “An unbiased question that is answered honestly will get you a lot further than a question that might be biased.”
Arseneau clarified that referendums are intended for students to express their opinions and that they do not bind College administrators to a particular course of action.
Mia Enriquez ’27 attended the event to better understand College protest policy.
“I care deeply about a lot of issues, political issues, and so I always sort of have my ears open for what people are doing on and around campus,” she said.
Enriquez said she found the event helpful.
“I was pleasantly surprised that they brought a lot of information to the table and went over a lot of the resources that exist for students,” she said. “And I do believe that these resources exist to help students.”
The workshop was organized by SA Undersecretaries for Student Rights and University Policy Aya Ezzahi ’27 and Caroline Morris ’28.
Ezzahi said SA planned the event to connect student advocates and administrators.
“We had noticed a disconnect between admin and student groups that were planning protests,” Ezzahi said. “We were hoping to bridge that gap and mitigate future protests and events.”
Morris described the event’s objectives.
“Transparency, establishing channels of communication that were previously there and just improving communication between students and admin,” she said.
Ezzahi and Morris said they felt the workshop achieved these goals.
