UB lifted bans on chalking, anonymous posters and amplification equipment in its recently drafted assembly policies in response to feedback from students and faculty, including the Faculty Senate, as of yesterday. The policy review period is extended for two more weeks with its end date being updated to Oct. 14.
Introduced in the beginning of the semester, the newly drafted policies were partly in response to the criticism regarding UB’s forceful arrests of 16 pro-Palestine demonstrators during the May 1 protest. Demonstrators during the protest attempted to set up an encampment to demand UB and the private UB Foundation to divest from companies associated with Israel.
The recent revisions and extension partially resulted from a resolution and memo submitted to the UB administration from the UB Faculty Senate’s Committee for Academic Freedom and Responsibility (CAFR). The memo stated that the bans are “so categorical in their proscriptions that they virtually necessitate selective enforcement which is likely to be viewpoint-specific.”
"In general, the thing that the committee is most concerned in is the idea of opening ourselves up to retributive action, not necessarily by the government but by all sorts of sources,” Dr. Randall Rasmussen, CAFR member and professor of the Department of Physiology, said.
UB’s policy review group will meet on Oct. 14 over Zoom to discuss further revisions.
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