Good for Cooper Union and CUNY for insisting that protests on campus do not interfere with the rights of others.
In recent months both institutions have seen student demonstrations that went well beyond their constitutionally guaranteed right “peaceably to assemble” and petition “for a redress of grievances.”
At CUNY, for example, protests greeted the hiring of former Gen. David Petraeus as an instructor. Members of the university community have a perfect right to protest that decision. What they did not have the right to do was to harass Petraeus as he left the building where he’d taught his class.
Cooper Union has had its own protests, mostly over the institution’s decision to start charging tuition for its classes. Again, the protesters had every right to do so. But they did not have the right to occupy the president’s office for months, as they did.
Fact is, New York’s academic institutions have a long history of bending over backward to accommodate student protests, no matter how seriously they disrupt campus life or interfere with the ability of other students trying to get an education.
Under its new proposal, CUNY reserves the right to call police if there’s “an immediate threat to persons or property.” Cooper Union, meanwhile, aims to forbid the “disruption of the free flow of pedestrian traffic” and behavior that “disturbs the peace, academic study or sleep of others.”
These are common-sense limits, and they are long overdue. They also send a valuable lesson to students and professors: You are free to exercise your speech rights so long as you do not violate the rights of those who may not agree with you.