By Rika Yonemura Fabian
As our union advances further into the impasse process and comes closer to the end point of impasse when we gain the legal right to strike, the District is showing their desperation in the most shameful ways: they are going after the freedom of speech of our students.
This March, 21 officially recognized student clubs at Skyline College issued a group statement of support for AFT1493’s first ever faculty strike authorization vote. In this statement, the student clubs expressed solidarity with their teachers in their fight for livable wages, academic freedom, and better working and teaching conditions. The statement was also brought to the Student Government of Skyline College for a vote for social media posting, which passed. A student designed flyer including the support statement was posted by students around the Skyline campus.
AFT is thankful for this entirely independent organizing by our students and their demonstration of unity with faculty. Their learning conditions are truly our working conditions, and our students recognize that these are very closely intertwined as a single issue that impacts both students and faculty.
On March 27, the Friday before the spring break, the student club leaders who endorsed this statement of support heard from the college administration that the flyers they had posted around campus were out of compliance with the District Board Policy and must be taken down immediately. That directive included the removal of the flyer posted on the club instagram accounts. Skyline’s Marketing, Communications & Public Relations (MCPR) department said, “[MCPR] cannot approve any poster to be put on bulletin boards which associates Skyline College with the union, which includes putting club logos and names on posters.”
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College’s intentional misuse of Board policies
From what I was able to learn from MCPR, Skyline College President Nathan Carter approved this ban in consultation with the Chancellor’s cabinet. This ban represents a frantic attempt by the administration to kill any grassroots voices of support for our faculty strike, while also showing their fears of teacher-student solidarity. And they are right to be afraid — when faculty and students unite, there is no way management wins. It’s not a coincidence that this ban came exactly two days after I announced the students’ statement of support at the Board of Trustees March 25 meeting. AFT strongly condemns this act of censorship. The desperation of our administration shines through the illogical and arbitrary application of the Board policy 2.35, items 8 and 11; item 8 regulates the use of District communication tools by union representatives – clearly it is not applicable to the use of bulletin boards by students, while item 11 regulates the use of District resources for the endorsement of electoral candidates, propositions and measures. The District is overextending item 11 in order to ban student clubs’ speech. This act by Skyline College and the District administration shows they are willing to censor any speech they find inconvenient by calling it a “political” content regulated by this nonsense blanket application of the Board Policy.
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Authoritarian abuses of power
As a sociologist, I teach in class countless examples of those in power extending existing codes and policies — in defiance of the original intent of the law — to oppress people rather than advance justice; for example, the anti-sodomy law used to oppress the LGBTQ people, or loitering laws used to ban the gathering of political protestors and exclude the unhoused people from public streets. What the District and Skyline administration are doing is a cliche style authoritarian abuse of power, while hiding behind the policies as a cloak. The Education Master Plan of Skyline College includes the language, “Be an ant-racist and equitable institution” and “cultivate civic mindedness and empower self and strengthen society.” Management appears utterly unconcerned about the obvious discrepancy between their words and their actions.
And this is not the first time Skyline College has attempted to restrict our student’s free speech. In 2017, a Skyline College student was banned from expressive activities in a campus free speech zone on the false grounds that they needed prior permission from the College. This article from FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, outlines the details of this incident. As we speak, our District administration has drafted (but not yet approved) a new Time, Place and Manner procedure (AP 3900) applicable to both students and faculty that attempts to prioritize those speakers with reservations even in areas designated public forums in such a way that we (students and/or employees) could be prevented from speaking out spontaneously or organizing counterprotests on the grounds of being “disruptive” of any group holding a prior reservation. If the new policy is forwarded to the Board, AFT will demand to bargain it.
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Censorship extends to Cañada College
At Cañada College last fall, censorship practices extended to faculty when AFT leaders were barred by VPSS Lizette Bricker from posting a strike vote flyer on public campus bulletin boards—even after following the established process of submitting materials to the Office of Student Life for a removal date stamp. As at Skyline, the same Board Policy 2.35.8 was cited in error. In the case of Cañada, the union was not attempting to use district personnel or resources to distribute content, but was simply exercising its right to post on a public bulletin board. Not only does requesting an approval stamp align with the procedure outlined on the College’s Student Life page under “Non-Cañada Postings” but our faculty contract also affirms, “The Union shall have the right to use institutional bulletin boards…” AFT was not asking the district to post its flyer; our rejected request was in full compliance with college protocol.
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The struggle continues
While the Cañada College students never learned that our faculty union was denied their free speech rights, the Skyline students who created the support statement are now organizing, demanding the retraction of the email that forced the clubs to take down the flyer among other things. AFT is connecting the students with FIRE. We will keep you posted about the support needed by the students from us faculty and the union.