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University maryland students face action for shouting at cheney { April 5 2004 }

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   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50129-2004Apr4.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50129-2004Apr4.html

3 Students Face U-Md. Action For Shouting at Cheney Speech
Vice President's Wife Addressed Policy Forum

By Amy Argetsinger
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 5, 2004; Page B01

Three University of Maryland students are facing disciplinary action for an incident in which they shouted questions and comments to Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, during a public forum at the school.

There was no open microphone at Cheney's Feb. 29 appearance on the College Park campus, and guests had been told to submit questions for her in writing. Instead, two of the students called out their questions -- one on gay marriage, the other on reparations for the descendants of slaves -- from their seats, and the third loudly uttered a vulgarity in response to one of Cheney's answers.

Two of the students said they have been accused of "disorderly or disruptive conduct," under a University of Maryland policy designed to protect the rights of speakers from being shouted off stage or drowned out by contentious audience members.

The students said that they weren't disrupting Cheney's speech -- that they were just asking questions. And their case has drawn the scrutiny of civil liberties advocates, who say the university's action infringes on the students' right to free speech.

"What the university officials appear to have done appears not only to be in violation of their own speech code, but also of the First Amendment," said Susan Goering, executive director of the ACLU of Maryland, noting that the school's code of student conduct specifically permits booing or heckling that falls short of a major disruption.

She added, "All of these guys were just speaking out of turn."

University officials would not comment on specifics, citing student confidentiality rules.

The university has been grappling with how to crack down on students who chant obscenities from the stands at basketball games without infringing on their First Amendment rights. Last month, the state attorney general's office issued guidelines for how to restrict such behavior, but university officials said they haven't yet developed a disciplinary policy.

University officials have been especially aggrieved by fan behavior because many of the basketball games are televised nationally. Cheney's speech -- the latest installment in a semiannual series of public policy forums sponsored at Maryland by the Norman and Florence Brody Family Foundation -- was taped for C-SPAN and CNN.

According to an account by the campus newspaper, only a few of the 250 people in attendance were students. Most of the forum, according to the article, focused on Cheney's life as the wife of Vice President Cheney and on the children's books she has written. That irritated Ryan Grim, a graduate student in public policy who attended the forum.

"It seemed pretty obvious during the question-and-answer process that [the moderator] wasn't going to ask her anything interesting or relevant to policy," he told The Washington Post.

In a discussion about how U.S. history is taught, Cheney expressed an opinion that an acquaintance of Grim's, graduate student Michael Cawdery, 25, responded to with a vulgarity, according to a campus police report and the accounts of both students.

Later, as Cheney wrapped up an answer about the legacy of slavery, junior Chuck DeVoe, 20, called out from the audience asking her opinion about reparations for the descendants of slaves. Cheney took the question, responding that she did not support reparations.

As the forum came to an end, Grim, 26, of Still Pond, Md., said he called out a question about gay marriage, referring to Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary. Cheney did not respond, he said.

Campus police officers then approached the three men and detained them for several minutes. Days later, the students said, they received letters telling them to schedule interviews with the campus Office of Judicial Programs about their conduct.

Grim and DeVoe said they both refused to submit to interviews.

"It wasn't one of those shouting-to-make-a-scene things. We were actually asking questions," Grim said. "We would whine if we were thrown out if we were shouting at her, but it didn't even get near that."

The status of the students remained unclear Friday, since university officials would not comment on specifics. Grim and DeVoe said they received letters informing them they have been charged under the campus disciplinary system for disruptive conduct. Cawdery, who submitted to a formal interview, said a university official told him it is unlikely they would be found guilty or punished.

Still, the university's decision to pursue the matter is troubling to Erich J. Wasserman, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Wasserman said he understands the university's desire to keep order in a public forum but is troubled by the "punitive aspect" of its actions. "Why punish what really is protected speech?" he said. "There's nothing that says you can't yell out in the middle of a speech."

Sheldon E. Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education, defended the University of Maryland, which he said has a "strong tradition" of upholding students' rights. He predicted that the university would not punish the men without due process.

Nonetheless, Steinbach noted that at many universities, "sometimes there's embarrassment and overreaction at what has transpired at an adult event."


© 2004 The Washington Post Company


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