University of Southern Maine students and staff protest the war in Gaza on Bedford Street in April. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
Nearly 20 students, alumni and faculty members from the University of Maine System appeared at its Board of Trustees meeting Monday morning to speak against draft changes to the system’s free speech policy.
Many connected the proposed policies to crackdowns on pro-Palestinian students protestors across the country last spring, a few of which took place at system campuses. They also called on the trustees to divest from Israel.
The board is considering changes to two policies on free speech and institutional authority on political matters. The changes were up for a first reading Monday as part of a year-long revision process targeting the system’s entire policy manual, according to the board’s chair.
Students and faculty — many of them wearing keffiyehs, a traditional Arab headdress worn as a symbol of support for Palestine — urged the trustees to reject the policy changes during an hour-long public comment period.
University of Southern Maine Professor of Sociology Abigail Fuller expressed worry about the addition of the word “safety” in several places.
“Of course the university has a responsibility to ensure the material safety of students, but material safety is distinct from a feeling of safety. Feelings of fear can be quite real, but the university should not interpret those as a real danger and use them to shut down speech, and that is what I fear at University of Maine campuses,” said Fuller, who organized several pro-Palestinian rallies on campus this year as the chair of Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights.
Pro-Palestinian protests and events on Maine’s public university campuses have been peaceful. About 30 students demonstrated at the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus in April, calling for the school to divest from Israel.
UMaine political science student Gracie Gebel said the policy changes would have a chilling effect on student speech, especially any criticism of Israel.
“We are at a point globally where student voices matter, our ability to speak freely matters. Amending the free speech policy at this time could potentially lead to fear from students to speak out on matters they care about due to unjust punishment from the university,” Gebel said.
Board of Trustees Chair Trish Riley said the policy changes came about during a broad effort to review outdated trustee policies, a project that has been ongoing for almost a year. She said the trustees have been revisiting the policies page-by-page and making changes, and have just now reached the section that addresses free speech.
“Our goal was to assure that we reinforce the importance of freedom of speech and academic freedom in an academic environment, while also recognizing that we need to protect the physical safety of students, but there’s nothing in these changes that would change in any way our commitment to free speech in an academic environment,” Riley said.
DIVESTMENT EFFORTS
Much of the testimony in opposition to the policy changes was coupled with calls for trustees to withdraw investments from Israeli companies and companies that supply weapons to Israel, as well as to end academic ties to the county.
Students submitted a letter to the board in October and published the letter online as a petition, which has picked up more than 500 signatures according to Ashley Hebert, a graduate student at UMaine who submitted the letter.
“I know that we have the capacity to oppose these violations of humanitarian law as a learning community,” Hebert said at Monday’s meeting. “We have passed divestment measures before.”
Many speakers alluded to the system’s history as one of the first universities in the country to divest from South Africa during Apartheid. In 1982, the trustees voted to sell off $1.9 million in investments in companies that did business there. It was one of the first 10 universities in the United States to do so.
“Learning that UMaine was on the leading edge of divestment from the apartheid South African state gave me a feeling of pride and confidence in the university. What if the board had decided otherwise in 1982? What if they had not only refused to divest, but even refused to formally consider the matter? If that had been our university’s history, I wouldn’t have felt pride. I would have felt shame,” UMaine alumnus James Fields testified. “Twenty years from now, students will look back at this history. They’ll look back at the decisions made by this institution, by you. Do you want them to feel pride or shame?”
Riley, the board chair, said the trustees provided a full recording of investments, and welcomed the students’ pitch for divestment. System Director of External Affairs Samantha Warren said in response to student inquiries about 12 specific companies, the system did a review of its investments and determined they accounted for $1.6 million, about .22% of the university system’s holdings, at the time of the review last April.
“We’ll hold another meeting in which this will be an agenda item,” Riley said.
POLICY PROCESS
During the first reading of the two policies Monday, Trustee Barbara Alexander said the draft policy revisions went through extensive reviews with student, faculty and the system’s legal council.
“There was never any intent, and I hope to confirm this by communicating with people who were concerned, to restrict in any way the current rights and remedies of students or faculty with respect to these important matters,” Alexander said. “Some of the language in the current policy simply had no basis in law, and we used words that the legal folks know what they mean.”
She said the trustee policy is a high-level document, and the policies can be implemented on an individual school level by administrators. She said the board would continue to review the policies and communicate with concerned parties before the January meeting, where trustees with decide on the policy changes.
During its all-day meeting, trustees also heard updates on enrollment, finances and research programs, voted for two collective bargaining agreements and approved two new academic programs: an associate of science in cybersecurity at the University of Maine at Augusta and a bachelor of science in computer science and business at the University of Maine.
The next trustee meeting on Jan. 12 and 13 will be at the University of Southern Maine.
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