Following college protests across the country over the war in Gaza, Stonehill College’s new policy on student protests calls for students to ask permission two business days in advance before holding any demonstrations and forbids discrimination against a long list of groups.
Vice President of Student Affairs Pauline Burke said the policy was changed and fine-tuned for a wide range of reasons.
“The types of protests and other demonstrations done on other campuses, some done fine and done very well, but some of which created safety concerns and impacted the daily life of college activity, it’s a great topic to be talking about to begin the year, not only with the ongoing war over in Gaza, but the upcoming election,” Burke said.
Burke said the College plans to work closely with students who want to express their opinions,
“What we want to do when a student group wants to protest or demonstrate, we want to work with them as much as we can to make it successful. A lot of work goes into putting this together, and we want it planned in a way in which it follows the policy...obviously, we want students to come together to use their voices, to talk about things they are passionate about,” she said.
Under the new policy, outside of the protected groups, and the two-business day requirement, students are also prohibited from certain behaviors at these protests. Burke clarified what students were and were not allowed to do, and the actions the College may take.
“If student groups were not following the policy, if they were impeding pedestrian or vehicular traffic, if they were creating a volume of sound that prohibited people from doing their normal activities, if they’re blocking access to offices, or creating unsafe environments on campus, we’d immediately talk to students about this, and try and see if they would change to comply with the policy. If they were unwilling to do that, we would unfortunately need to cease the demonstration at that point,” Burke said.
Stonehill students have had a mixed response to this policy. Kyle Mercier ‘26, a psychology major, has taken a skeptical stance.
He said, “It kind of defeats the purpose of protesting to a certain extent - people who are dedicated to protesting something are going to cause a disruption and are going to violate those restrictions. It seems like a pointless change to control something that is meant to go against control. It’s like trying to put a fence around a fire.”
Aiden Spurr ‘26, an accounting major, took concern with the timing requirements of the policy, and has taken a more cautious outlook.
“So obviously, the whole Palestine protests that were going on last year, what if an event was going on a Thursday or Friday, what if someone wanted to protest at it? It feels like it’s just going to delay people from saying their piece,” Spurr said.
Ella O’Keefe ‘27, an accounting major, had a more hopeful response to the policy.
“I feel like it’s fair. I understand that Stonehill is very serious about inclusion and letting students say what they want to. People should be able to say what they want, and people should be able to say how they feel freely,” O’Keefe said.
Despite these mixed opinions, Stonehill may be set up to see this policy change put into action, as the upcoming presidential election could see a resurgence of student demonstrations on campus.
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