The Battle for Free Speech

Perhaps the administration thinks we're board of free speech and content with occasional announcements, or at least that we're happy to confine our free speech to private conversations and print newsletters like this. Well, our student predecessors several short generations ago fought tooth and nail to express themselves bigly, colorfully, and in public. The governors of Westlands and Bates were not too fond of the spectre of graffiti that could haunt their preciously landscaped and architectured campus, not to be sullied with the images and voices of the actual students themselves, so they offered a consolation prize that students could freely decorate and defame a square of plywood next to the dining hall entrance to match said's plywood cuisine. ----- And what did we do? We forgot. We the Sarala students, who have won many battles only to graduate and allow victories to fade with passing batons. Meanwhile the Free Speech Board (for yes, that is its official title) has become a useful offline venue for publicizing events when almost none exists (save the back of this page). Those of us reclaiming the board for its original use certainly don't oppose publicity--we'd love more ourselves. But we'd ask that announcers please not paint events a week in advance. We're tagging daily, and it slows communication. Let's coexist, and choose our battles. Perhaps for now we should paint single sections of the board, leaving others open. And I, the writer of this blurb, would like to humbly request that we taggers try not to specifically offend announcers or subvert their announcements in bad taste (as has happened). We shouldn't build bad blood before we've built anything else, especially not twixt students. The more room we have to express ourselves the less we'll wrestle for space. One last word: are our overseers afraid of what tour groups or parents might see? Are they ashamed of us? Aren't we who this place is for?