Protect Political Expression

To the Editors of The Crimson:

On behalf of the Civil Liberties Union of Harvard, we wish to your attention a recent incident which may have grave implications for the state of freedom of expression at Harvard.

On October 8, 1988, Linda Rottenberg '90, Chris Morris '89 and a few other Harvard students entered the Cornell football game at Harvard Stadium. The students were carrying Dukakis campaign materials, including posters and t-shirts.

After turning over their tickets, the students were stopped by a Harvard police officer. The officer cited a rule which prohibits any political materials "other than pins" from being displayed at the stadium. Mr. Morris then proceeded to leave the stadium with the signs. When Ms. Rottenberg tried to re-enter the stadium, the same officer stopped her again and told her that she could not enter the stadium with the bag of t-shirts she had. When she told him that she wasn't going to do anything with them in the stadium and that she didn't have any place to keep them while at the game, he told her that it wasn't his problem and forcibly ejected her from the stadium into the rain.

If there is no such rule, the Harvard police officer involved should be instructed not to interfere with peaceful people entering the stadium in the future simply because they are carrying political materials. Also, it would behoove the officer and the administration to publicly apologize to the aforementioned students. This ought to be done in The Crimson, the community's newspaper.

If such a rule does exist, it goes against Harvard's own stated policies and established law. The April 14, 1970, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Resolutions on Rights and Responsibilities reads, in part: "The University must affirm, assure and protect the rights of its members to organize and join political associations, convene and conduct public meetings, publicly demonstrate and picket in orderly fashion, advocate, and publicize opinion by print, sign and voice."

Massachusetts and federal courts grant board protection to the carrying of placards: "It is beyond dispute that communications by signs and posters is pure speech." Nyer v. Munoz-Mendoza, 385 Mass. 184. It is our conviction that this is clearly a First Amendment issue: the students' constitutional right to freedom of expression was denied.

In Abramowitz v. Boston University, a Suffolk County Superior Court judge ruled that a student had a right to display a political banner from his dormitory window where the school had generally allowed banners of any kind to be hung from such windows. The court ruled that if banners are permitted, school officials cannot decide to have certain ones taken down simply because they advocate a political view different from that of the administration. In other words, Boston University could not discriminate on the basis of the content of the expression.

At Harvard University it should not be any different. The officer, acting on behalf of the administration, was determining what could and what could not enter the stadium; he was playing the role of a censor. It is not right to discriminate on the basis of content. Banners and signs of all kinds are regularly brought into the stadium--most of them carry slogans and pictures we consider supporting of a player or a team.

If a policy preventing political expression at athletic events does indeed exist, as an institution dedicated to the values of openness and free inquiry, should strive to end all censorship, whether it be in academic or athletic arenas. We call on the administration to take swift public action on this issue. Ted Constan '89   Treasurer, CLUH   Joshua Gerstein '92   Member, CLUH   Neil Segall '90   President, CLUH