Erroneous Emails: Opinion

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The past few weeks we have been bombarded by emails. I would like to give some context to two emails, one sent from Isabelle Moreno-Lopez, our Interim VP for Equity & Inclusive Excellence, and one from our president Kent Deveraux, both regarding our tenacious policies regarding posters and demonstrations.

Some context before the context: The Office of Equity and Exclusive Excellence is currently in a state of transition after our previous VP for Inclusive Excellence, Jasmine Lee, left Goucher over the summer. In the interim, Isabelle Moreno-Lopez has stepped up to be our VP for Inclusive Excellence while we find a viable replacement. Isabelle is the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Students and also led the Policy Committee over the summer.

 Our Policy Committee is a committee consisting of many members of administration, and this summer there were two student representatives, Christian Houck, Vice President of the SGA, and I. I joined specifically in order to stop student’s posters from requiring a stamp to be put up, and to try and update our controversial demonstration policy. This took us all summer to do, it wasn’t until the very last Policy Committee meeting that we officially discussed both these policies due to the bureaucratic nature of this committee. Last note, the Policy for Posting Printed Materials was drafted with student input first by SGA after a town hall meeting last semester and was rewritten by Isabelle-Moreno-Lopez for the committee. 

From Isabelle,

“As you might have already heard, there is a call for a demonstration on Friday. The flyers were removed when they were reported for not including Goucher contact information, and for not being placed on bulletin boards. Please make sure to follow the Policy for Posting Printing Materials on the Goucher Towson Campus which was written with student input…Demonstrations can be scheduled following the Campus Demonstration Policy, which was also reviewed this summer with student input.”

This was in reference to the vigil held on Friday, September 27th by members of our community. While this was not done with permission of the administration and to call this a demonstration may not be correct. See Sam Rose’s article in this edition for more in depth details.

The Poster Policy referenced above gives FMS the ability to remove posters from unauthorized locations if, and only if, they determine them to be a fire hazard. Goucher FMS seems to think that posters posted on the metal poles outside Mary Fisher are a fire hazard, which is ridiculous. The part about not including Goucher contact information is more substantial however. In an email to the policy committee from Dean Smith, he stated that “For security purposes and to ensure all information sharing is protected, sending sensitive student or community related information to non-Goucher email addresses compromises the integrity of our community.” Therefore, allowing only non-Goucher contact information on posters is out of the question, but requiring every poster to have contact information, especially when it is unnecessary, could be up for debate.

From Kent Deveraux,

“Over the summer we worked very diligently, and with extensive student input, to incorporate any such limits in our updated Campus Demonstration Policy and the new Policy for Posting Printed Materials.”

I would like to speak specifically on the value both of these emails put on student input. In the original draft of the Poster Policy, Chrisitan and I had to defend our thoughts fiercely, tooth and nail, in order to represent the students’ voices. To her credit however,  when Isabelle rewrote the policy for the committee meeting, it included many things that the students wanted, most importantly not needing a stamp to put up a flier. Yet, the policy as it stands still allows student’s posters to be taken down from popular posting spots because they are ludicrously deemed to be a fire hazard. I am unsure if the administration is willing to value student input especially in light of the following.

After the policy committee approves the policy, compromises and all, it gets submitted to the President’s Cabinet for approval, where they apparently have the ability to change the policy however they want. 

Once the Poster Policy was submitted to the president’s cabinet, they decided to add wordage on handing out flyers, which included requiring a student who wants to hand out a pamphlet, piece of paper, to submit their “name, ID and Goucher email; (2) date of the event request; (3) location (Athenaeum-outside or lobby, Mary Fisher Lobby, Van Meter Highway, Welsh Patio); (4) start and end time; (5) set up and clean up time; (6) purpose for tabling; and (7) number of tables and chairs.” This wordage is treating handing out flyers as a demonstration, as these are the same requirements for requesting a demonstration. 

This salient section was added without informing the policy committee, nor the students who made this policy. The students had no say in one of the most controversial segments of this new policy. How can you value student input, when you deliberately subvert the student’s voices in this important issue?

As to the Demonstration Policy, we reviewed the policy but did not have time to thoroughly defend the student’s issues with the policy. We were told that the president’s cabinet had to send out an email saying the Demonstration Policy was reviewed with student input over the summer. This email was sent out on August 20th from the president, saying “I am pleased to report that our Policy Committee revised our demonstration, social media, and poster distribution polices with input from three student leaders who volunteered to serve on the committee over the summer. I am confident that these updated policies which will be posted within the week will better reflect the aspirations and values of our campus community.” 

We approved the Demonstration Policy with reservations, without many substantial changes, so that the president could send out an email saying thus. It was only approved so the President could send that email, not because the students would be satisfied with the changes made and I am not too certain that the updated Demonstration Policy actually better reflects the student’s values.

In our Policy on Policies, it states that “Any member of the college community may make a recommendation to develop or update a policy. These recommendations should be submitted for approval to policies@goucher.edu.” I encourage any member of this community to reach out to Policies if they feel that any policy sucks or does not reflect the climate on this campus. This of course should not be your only action, policies only change so much, but making sure these people hear your voice, and hear everyone’s voice, is an important step in changing this Goucher community for the better.

A bulletin board, one of the few approved locations to post flyers on campus.

By Jimy Kuhn ’27

1 Comment

  1. Kent Devereaux is a terrible president who is constantly trying to regulate our speech and gaslight us into fearing a non-existent enemy, while presenting to potential donors the illusion of respect for the First Amendment and progressive ideals. He does not respect Goucher and never will, so he will never have mine in return.

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