On Sept. 17, the University of North Georgia welcomed students from all five campuses to a panel discussion of their First Amendment rights. The event was live on the Dahlonega Campus and was broadcasted to the other four campuses.
About 50 students attended the live event and students received pocket-sized constitutions and First Amendment handouts.
UNG President, Dr. Michael Shannon, welcomed students to the event and outlined its purpose. “We are preparing you to engage in the hard work of democracy,” said Shannon. He encouraged students to “Ask hard questions and join in the discussion.”
Student Government Association Representative, Olivia Holm, introduced the panelists and their respective areas of study.
Five UNG faculty and staff members, Political Science Professor Carl Cavali, Education Professor James Brewer, UNG’s Assistant General Counsel Miguel Rodriguez, Senior Dean of Students Glen Harris and Assistant Dean of Students Richelle Kielholz, discussed the history, content and application of the First Amendment to university students.
Prior to the event, students had the opportunity to submit anonymous questions to the panel regarding their First Amendment rights and how it specifically applies to UNG students.
When asked “How does campus leadership plan to respond to any student protests?” Harris said, “We will let the protest happen. We want to support students’ ability to express whatever opinion that they have. If there becomes a safety risk involved, depending upon where they are, we might need to move them to the designated public forum space because of safety concerns, we may ask them to shift down, but we’re not going to shut down the speech.”
Another student-submitted question asked, “How does the school plan to handle political interference that may impact a student’s constitutional right of free speech?”
Rodriguez said, “If the political interference is unlawful, you know, just like I said, it’s in the USG policy, the University of North Georgia is going to vigorously protect your First Amendment rights.”
“There’s not an exception to hate speech. There’s not an exception to speech that’s offensive,” says Rodriguez, “The environment of the university is to be able to listen to somebody else’s views and to debate about it, to talk about it, to see the truth and good which this institution was founded on.”
After the student-submitted questions, Shannon invited students to ask questions of the panelists. He ended the live broadcast of the event and isolated the conversations to each campus. “I challenge you today as we go into these breakouts for the next few minutes, and the dialogue continues, let it not stop here,” said Shannon. “This is healthy. This is the right thing to do. And ladies and gentlemen, this is America. And that’s what we can stand tall and proud of today.”
