Details on Updated Poster Policy Remain Light
On October 11, the Presidential Council on Campus Climate sent out an email announcing their intention to have the Reed community “discuss what our posting guidelines should look like and how we can work together to make space for each of our voices to be heard.” The rest of the email drew condemnation from Reed SJP for its equivocal framing of the racist destruction of the GCC Palestine-Lebanon genocide memorial, but the oblique reference to implementing new posting guidelines received less immediate attention. The issue of updated campus posting guidelines received greater attention when, during Senate Public on Monday, October 28, then-Senator Andrew Sakahara ‘27 announced that the Office of Student Life had informed the Legislation Committee that it was interested in establishing regulations for student posting on campus. More than a month later, details on proposed changes to the poster policy remain sparse, with Vice President for Student Life Karnell McConnell-Black telling the Quest that his office is planning to propose community legislation on student posters but has no specific proposals to share yet.
Student Body Vice President Jefferson Ratliff ‘25 emphasized that the proposal from Student Life is currently at the beginning of the community legislation process and has yet to be reviewed by any student body government representatives. Because the posting guidelines are a formal Reed-wide policy impacting multiple constituencies, the Office of Student Life cannot constitutionally modify them on its own. Rather, proposed changes to the posting guidelines would need to enter the community legislation process governed by Article III of the Reed Community Constitution, which starts with a review by the Legislation Committee. The Legislation Committee can either discourage legislative action, form an ad hoc committee for further study, or advance draft legislation. If the committee advances draft legislation, the faculty of the Community Affairs Committee (CAC) and Senate both review the draft and propose edits for the Legislation Committee to review. Then, the committee shares updated draft legislation to initiate a community review period, after which it creates a final proposal. Senate and the faculty both vote on legislation; if their votes are aligned, the legislation either passes or fails. If their votes differ, the faculty vote stands unless Senate holds a referendum pursuant to Article IV of the Reed Community Constitution.
According to Ratliff, who is one of two student representatives on the Legislation Committee along with Alyssa Daggett ‘27, “We will be sure to voice any student concerns about the potential harm to student speech and autonomy these changes may bring and will have power along with the student body to reject them if needed.”
Flow chart provided by Senate
Shared with Senate by McConnell-Black, to illustrate the community legislation process.
Reed’s current posting guidelines, adopted in 2007 and last updated in 2009, do not place any formal restrictions on the content of student posters. Rather, the guidelines deal entirely with acceptable locations and methods of posting, stating that posters cannot obstruct glass doors or glass windows on doors and that tape used for posters cannot mark walls. The remainder of the policy specifies the frequency of poster removal by Facilities staff, although the guidelines specified therein do not appear to be closely followed.
Although the posting guidelines do not impose any formal restrictions on the content of student posters, the October 11 email from the Climate Council said that students should report posters that “call[] for violence, or attack[] individuals or protected classes” to Community Safety for removal. Recent Community Safety blotters suggest that CSOs have been taking down posters that encourage property damage as a form of resistance at Reed or express rhetorical support for armed Palestinian resistance. McConnell-Black cites the lack of formal clarity on what the college will take down as a point in favor of modifying the posting guidelines. While declining to provide any suggestion of what specific changes his office is looking for, McConnell-Black told the Quest, “I can share that the [proposed updates to the] posting standards intend to provide guardrails and clarity about posters on campus. It is not meant to censor free expression.” Despite this, an anonymous senator who is not on the Legislation Committee said, “what I have seen… looks pretty bad, but that’s confidential at this stage.”
In the meantime, the prospect of additional restrictions on student posting, beyond those already imposed on SB Info and the Missed Connections, continues to rile Reed students. Julia O’Beirne ‘25 recently printed a series of posters advocating against administrative censorship of student communications, which other students illustrated and posted. While the posters were primarily a response to the administrative moderation of SB Info, O’Beirne told the Quest that by declaring “you can’t moderate this piece of paper,” she hoped to convey a more general message against administrative censorship of student communications and expression. She was inspired by another series of posters declaring “Audrey and Karnell Hate this Piece of Paper,” which appeared around campus in November and were largely taken down within several days. “I'm trying to remind admin that we are going to be able to communicate with each other one way or another, and that what we communicate will depend on their behavior,” O’Beirne said.