Though student organizers of the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 2013 march never formally submitted a permit request for grounds use, the University of Alabama administration used recent summer revisions to the Facilities and Grounds Use Policy to permit the demonstration and grant an “expedited approval process,” UA officials said.
“The grounds use permit is a mechanism that allows UA to determine whether requested events can be held without interfering with academic programs, normal business operations and previously scheduled events. UA determined that the event, as described to University officials the day before, would not interfere with the academic and business environment, and a GUP was approved on Tuesday afternoon [Sept. 17],” Director of Media Relations Cathy Andreen said in an emailed statement.
The march, held Wednesday, Sept. 18, was organized in response to allegations of racial discrimination in the formal recruitment process of certain Panhellenic sororities detailed in The Crimson White’s Sept. 11 article “The Final Barrier.” The march began on the steps of Gorgas Library and ended at the front entrance to Rose Administration Building.
Ross Green, one of the demonstration’s student organizers, said event leaders did not file a written request for use of Gorgas Library or Rose Administration Building.
“We never filed any paperwork for a grounds use permit, and we never had any intention of doing so because we were set on doing it on the steps of Rose,” Green said. “We didn’t want them to tell us to move it to some corner of the Quad where it wouldn’t have had as big of an impact.”
According to the “Reservation Requirements” section of the Facilities and Grounds Use Policy listed on UA Facilities’ web page, “Other than uses for casual recreational or social activities, reservations must be made for the use of buildings and grounds under the control of the University, including University sidewalks (an ‘Event’). Requests for Event reservations will be granted in accordance with the priorities of the designated area. The request must be made by a signed, written application to the appropriate office as set out in the procedures referenced below.”
Green said demonstration organizers had not originally planned to alert UA administration to the march’s execution or location before the event actually took place.
“It was initially planned to be much louder and disruptive, to be much more of an active protest,” he said.
Green said University officials, including Mark Nelson, vice president for Student Affairs and vice provost, asked to meet with Green and other organizers Tuesday, Sept. 17.
“While the demonstration was still under wraps, we met with the administration, and we told them we were intent on doing it at Rose [Administration Building]. We met the day before to discuss what all was going on, our plans and their plans for what steps were going to be taken,” Green said. “I think they realized just how important this was to all of us, and word had leaked to them about the demonstration. Dr. Nelson streamlined the process for us, and he made it to where we could demonstrate there without having to file for a grounds use permit.”
The “streamlining” described by Green lent itself to the University’s approval of a grounds use permit, Andreen said.
“[Dr. Nelson] facilitated the approval of the grounds use permit,” she said. “Student-organized events can be granted a GUP if the event is in response to issues that are currently in the news. The grounds use permit allows for an expedited approval process under those circumstances.”
In an audio interview obtained by WVUA-FM the day of the demonstration, Nelson said he had met with organizers the day before, but he said the demonstration had received a grounds use permit from the University.
“No, it will not be another Harlem Shake. That’s true,” Nelson said. “They have a grounds use permit, actually. I saw to that yesterday.”
Nelson was referring to the Feb. 18 incident when UAPD shut down a student-organized “Harlem Shake” filming session on the steps of Gorgas for lacking a grounds use permit.
The “Other Campus Grounds-Use” section of the policy confirms the permission process may be influenced by the timeliness of the event’s focus, stating, “If an Event is spontaneous, such that it is occasioned by news or issues coming into public knowledge within the preceding two calendar days, an expedited request for a GUP may be made by a University Affiliate.”
The policy now makes a parallel concession for “a counter-event, such that it is occasioned in response to an Event for which a GUP has been issued.”
Amanda Reyes said these exceptions were not afforded to her when she applied for a permit to pass out fliers in response to the Bama Students for Life’s Genocide Awareness demonstration on the Quad April 10 and 11.
“I definitely think we should have been able to apply to get an expedited permit, and, apparently, the person I spoke with through the Grounds department did not know about this rule or was not willing to let me know that it existed. Though we were not represented by the Alabama Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Justice, I was able to fill out and submit a grounds use permit application form through this organization within an hour of being threatened with arrest,” Reyes, then a women’s studies graduate student and president of the Alabama Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Justice, said in an emailed statement.
The policy states its contents were revised in July 2013, and Andreen said the items outlining the exceptions for spontaneous and counter events were added to the policy at this time.
“Those provisions were added when the grounds use policy was updated in July,” Andreen said. “The University regularly reviews the policy to be sure that it continues to meet our needs.”
Reyes said police approached herself, and other students, distributing pamphlets in front of BSFL’s display after a third-party observer complained to officers.
“I made handbills and, via Facebook, let people know that I would be distributing them to anyone who would care to have them. I have no idea how many people were involved or who all of those people were. This was not an organized demonstration or counter-protest,” she said.
Reyes said her efforts should not have qualified as an event requiring a grounds use permit, as the activity was an “unorganized action” not under the direction of any student organization. Furthermore, she said students “should have a right to free speech.”
“If The University of Alabama would like all students organizing responses to events to have a permit that it can take up to 10 business days to procure, they should be required to post notice of on-campus events in a space that is available to all students at least 14 business days before the event will take place,” Reyes said.
Claire Chretien, president of Bama Students for Life, said her organization applied for a grounds use permit one month before the demonstration took place.
“Bama Students for Life applied for a grounds use permit on March 11, 2013. On April 1, 2013 we received a letter from the University informing us our application had been approved,” she said in an emailed statement. “We informed the University that we would be showing images of both historical and contemporary genocide.”
Chretien said Bama Students for Life welcomed counter-protesters at the demonstration, the purpose of which was to “create a dialogue about abortion.”
“To suggest that BSFL received any special treatment in the Orwellian grounds permit application process is demonstrably untrue, as evidenced by the fact that it took the University nearly a month to grant us permission to show campus the reality of abortion, and we were restricted to distributing literature from only behind the barricade that separated the images from the crowd,” she said.
Reyes said she does not believe her forced cessation was the result of bias on the part of the UA administration.
“The initial complaint to the police about our actions was from a person who did not approve of our message, but I do not think the actions of the University administration or the University police were motivated by our message,” she said. “They cannot be blamed for the faulty system.”
