Student Protest On College Campuses

When I was an undergraduate, I can remember absolutely dreading the days that the Students for Life were going to be protesting on campus. Though personally I am pro-life, I absolutely, completely, and totally dreaded the days that the Students for Life - the pro-life group on campus - would hit campus and inevitably spark a firestorm of controversy.

I worked in the Student Involvement and Leadership Center all four of my years on campus at the University of Kansas, and that was the office at KU that housed the University Events Committee. The University Events Committee had to approve any event that any of KU's 500 plus clubs or organizations wanted to put on, and no event could take place on campus without UEC's approval. This often caused a lot of headaches for our office, because it was UEC's duty to regulate any event - including protests - that happened on campus. As a right of the first amendment and the right of free speech, we had to let students protest - but it didn't mean we enjoyed it.

The Students for Life's protest was absolutely the worst one. Once a semester, the group would descend like hawks on campus, armed with picket signs with offensive messages and large, billboard-like posters with dead or dying fetuses on them, showing exactly what happened to the unborn child in the process of an abortion. These posters were so large that they were almost as tall of some of our campus buildings. This means, basically, that you could not avoid seeing bloody and disfigured fetuses as you walked to class on the days when they were protesting. It was, in a word, disgusting. The last image I wanted to see as I trudged up the hill to class at eight o'clock in the morning was that. I could hardly stand it.

Members of Students for Life were mulling about on days that they were protesting, holding picket signs and passing out pamphlets on the topic of pro-life issues. As disturbing as those images were to see while I was just minding my own business on campus - and as disturbing as some of the words spoken by the protesters were to innocent bystanders walking on campus - I had to keep continually reminding myself that these students had the right to do this.

Student protest is a tricky issue. It can sometimes be a huge headache and a huge hassle, but we as student affairs professionals have to remember that these students have a Constitutional right to do this. As much as I dreaded the days when Students for Life were on campus, I had to remember - as did all members of UEC - that if I wanted to protest an issue, I had the right to just as much as they did.

One of the best parts about our country is that we are allowed to have whatever opinion we want about whatever we want. We have to respect that and allow that to be true on our college campuses. We can dictate time, place, and manner but we cannot dictate what student protesters are protesting about. This may be frustrating at times, but the roots of this issue go as deep as our fundamental American beliefs.

I know that I will have to deal with this issue as a student affairs professional, and thankfully I am ready for it because of my prior experience with UEC. I have to continually and constantly keep in mind that everyone deserves a fair shake, and I will give all students that as a student affairs professional.