When LSU President F. King Alexander announced an indefinite suspension of Greek Life activities following Maxwell Gruver’s death Sept. 14, The Daily Reveille editorial board did not hesitate in writing in support of the decision. Still, we fully agree that pausing some Greek Life activities could be beneficial in changing the campus culture.
We cannot, however, support any policies that appear to infringe on students’ First Amendment rights to express themselves and assemble.
The University announced its tailgate policy for Saturday would not allow Greek students to assemble in groups of 10 or more. The guidelines would also not allow students to wear insignias, buttons and stickers representing their chapter. Such rules are a blatant violation of students’ rights.
We recognize there are far more important concerns on the LSU campus than tailgating and football. However, it is the administration who put the spotlight on gameday policies with an apparent disregard of students’ constitutional rights. There are numerous other options the University could have implemented, but it instead handed down an unjust punishment – one that violates some of our country’s most basic rights.
The First Amendment outlines Americans’ freedom of speech, expression and assembly, and in crafting policies that strip students of these rights, the University is holding Greek Life to a different standard compared to any other student organization. The University would never consider regulating how other groups could dress or assemble, even in the event of a similar tragedy.
In articles by both The Advocate and The Daily Reveille, the University has failed to adequately justify its position. Instead of focusing efforts on improving Greek Life’s internal culture, the University administration has elected to regulate what consenting adults can and cannot wear and how they can and cannot assemble. The University’s efforts would be better spent focusing on hazing and alcohol education or in increasing oversight on the Parade Ground to prevent altercations.
This policy is divisive, particularly at a time when “unity” is being preached to everyone following this incident. These discriminatory policies hardly aid in the resolution of the underlying issue and reason for punishment.
LSU is a public university and has a responsibility to uphold students’ rights, particularly those so clearly outlined in the First Amendment. With these rules, the University not only fails to defend its students’ liberties, but actively attempts to diminish them.
Despite the anger and frustration over these policies, it’s important for everyone to remember a student died. Nothing should be more important than working to prevent any future loss of life due to hazing, alcoholism or drug abuse within the LSU community. But limiting students’ constitutional rights in no way furthers that goal.