DuPage Co. (ECWd) –
By all indications the College of DuPage has yet another Breuder era mess to clean up in order to protect the people’s rights as outlined in our Constitution.
Two students, along with an adviser from Turning Point USA who was helping them organize a chapter at DuPage, were on campus inviting passersby to sign up for the club and/or sign the petition—and were also distributing pocket Constitutions and non-partisan flyers stating that “America is a free speech zone”—when they were approached by campus police. (To view video and read the full story from Campus Reform click here)
A very key point on this issue is found with the one very important question asked by Joseph Enders, “What are the rules for doing this kind of stuff on campus?”
That might be a good question to know before “locking” someone up. Turns out there is no board policy nor administrative procedure for what these students were doing, which means they were not breaking any laws that support incarceration.
In fact, there is only a set of guidelines developed by the Office of Student Life many years ago and occasionally updated, who clearly have no authority to have anyone locked up.
Information provided by Interim President Dr. Joe Collins: “It is not a board policy nor administrative procedure, but a set of guidelines developed by the office of Student Life many years ago and occasionally updated.”
We suspect Chairman Hamilton will have a lot to say about this issue that once again points to reforms needed at COD.
I commend the students in how they handled the situation as they were polite and complied with the police request to stop, even though it appears he had no such authority to stop their action.
I hope that this is a teaching moment for everyone, as all parties handled themselves in a civil manner, which is far less than we have seen with lesser issues from some other groups.
May we suggest a thorough review of all policies in place at COD (from all offices), and instructions given to campus police as to which policies are legitimate board policies and which rules are enforceable.
I am betting that the Board will take this up as another needed reform issue. Student Life has no authority to write rules that get people locked up. Is this another indicator being exposed of the failed leadership of Robert Breuder?
