Some students have expressed concern that campus activism and free speech are experiencing a chilling effect following the University’s updated free speech guidelines announced earlier this school year.

The University announced a set of free speech guidelines in September that detail the parameters of what is permitted during campus protests, following a tumultuous year of demonstrations and counter-protests against Israel’s war and Gaza.

Several faculty members expressed support for the guideline, calling it a proactive measure. Introduced in September by Dean Jenny Martinez and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Michele Rasmussen, the new guidelines outline several points, including pre-registration of major events, designated outdoor spaces for gatherings, identification guidelines and masking and emphasis on neutrality from a policy perspective.

“The rules don’t exist to protect students,” said Yungsu Kim ’25, a member of the Stanford Asian American Action Committee (SAAAC). “The rules exist to protect Stanford because Stanford is deeply, deeply afraid of what students may have done last year.”

Kim also expressed concern that the statement’s guidelines “weren’t really developed with student input.”

Only two major protests have taken place since the start of the quarter on September 23.

Over the past school year, community members – including students and faculty – have organized various protests in response to the war between Israel and Gaza. The students held a period of 120 days camp on White Plaza and busy the president’s office in June — resulting in the arrest of 13 Stanford students, including a Daily reporter. These protests called for the university to divest from companies linked to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a proposal the university has rejected earlier this month, among other demands.

In accordance with the guidelines, the University released a “Statement on Free Speech,” which was approved by the Faculty Senate.

The Senate ad hoc committee had been examining speech-related issues since spring 2023, according to Bernadette Meyler JD ’03, special adviser to Martinez.

The Senate “heard from many individuals and groups a desire for a clear affirmation of the importance of free speech on campus,” Meyler wrote to the Daily.

She also wrote that the new freedom of expression website “was designed to clarify and simplify existing policy wherever possible, make any constraints on speech obvious and straightforward, and increase the number of suitable venues for large gatherings. »

Zoe Tweedie ’25, ASSU’s free speech director, said the statement had “both positive and negative impacts.”

Tweedie noted that in the past, White Plaza was referred to as a “free speech zone,” which “wrongly indicated” that free speech could only be expressed in that area. She was “very happy” to see such language removed, as it represents a “productive change” for University policy.

However, Tweedie acknowledged that “when you put additional barriers or impose additional requirements to express free speech, it can always end up crippling speech.”

As community reactions to the declaration continue to emerge, Kim said student protests in support of community spaces, such as the Asian American Activity Center, El Centro and ethnic-themed houses, are key to “creating a more equitable campus.”

“It is our task and our obligation to move the University forward,” Kim said. “We can’t sit here and wait for the rules to be changed or changed or for Stanford to be more lenient. We must actively fight.

University President Jonathan Levin ’94 said in an interview with The Daily on Friday that the new policy could be clarified in some places, particularly regarding chalking.

“The rules were designed with the goal of protesting speech, and so I hope they do a good job of doing that over time,” Levin said. “They need to stand the test of time.”

Russell Berman, the Walter A. Haas professor of humanities, told the Daily he saw the statement as “part reactive and part wisely proactive,” to ensure that community members do not have their everyday problems . , necessary movement disrupted.

He referenced protests at Columbia and UCLA, which drawn responses from the police and resulted in the cancellation of the former’s entry into office.

“The University is acting proactively to ensure that all members of the community are not prohibited and impeded from their legitimate movements on campus,” he said.

Per the updated policy, events with an expected attendance of more than 100 people require prior registration and approval at designated “outdoor event spaces,” with the exception of White Plaza, where registration is always “ strongly encouraged.”

Kim also argued that “it’s not just people engaged in political activism who are affected by these policies,” since all voluntary student organizations (VSOs) “must now work around these bureaucratic loopholes.”

“All Stanford is doing is making it exceptionally harder for people, so people can do what they do, which is create community in the absence of administration from Stanford,” Kim said.