opinion

Bangert: Purdue backs off campaign restrictions

There was plenty of free speech going on at Purdue University on Thursday. Just ask Brother Jed Smock, the fire-and-brimstone reverend who has taken up residency near the fountain on Purdue Mall in recent weeks.

“Just saving souls today,” Smock, leader of the Terre Haute-based Campus Ministry USA, said, as his apostles told passing students about their paths to eternal damnation. Behind Smock, his flock held placards that were part provocative judgments of sexual activity (“Be a Ho No Mo”) and part Joan Rivers-styled red carpet review (the inexplicable “Yoga Pants Sin”).

Did he ever get a hassle — beyond the big show of catcalls his brand of preaching has purposely provoked on college campuses since the ‘70s — from the university for telling passing students they are fornicators, sluts and whores?

“No,” Smock said. “Purdue’s always had free speech.”

Maybe. Then why were candidates running for West Lafayette’s city offices calling attorneys, wondering if their First Amendment rights were being pushed aside on Thursday, the day an early voting site was set up ahead of the Nov. 3 election?

On a campus that President Mitch Daniels had declared a free-speech zone earlier in the year, were candidates actually being told they couldn’t speak face-to-face with potential voters on university property?

Well, yes and no, to hear university counsel Steve Schultz tell it. It’s complicated, depending on where you happen to be standing on campus.

The questions started when a member of the Tippecanoe County Democratic Party asked Purdue to clarify where campaign signs could be posted outside polling places — in this case Stewart Center on Thursday and then the Purdue Memorial Union on Nov. 3.

In his answer written on Tuesday, Paul Horngren, director of event management at the Purdue Memorial Union, gave places where signs would be permitted, outside the 50-foot buffer zones provided in county election law. Then he mentioned restrictions on campaigning, including this about Thursday’s early vote center:

“No person-to-person campaigning, however, may be done outside (Stewart Center), since that is property of Purdue University,” Horngren wrote, adding that “recognized student organizations” may campaign from reserved tables “if their events are approved.”

That set candidates scurrying, particularly those running for West Lafayette City Council’s new District 3 seat. That three-way race — Republican Aseem Jha, Democrat Joelle Jones and independent Donnie Spencer — is in a new district made up almost entirely by students living in Purdue residence halls in the first election since West Lafayette annexed campus more than a year ago.

Donny Jones, the father of Joelle Jones, protested and brought lawyers into the fight.

“That was so out of the blue. We weren’t even asking for permission to campaign,” said Donny Jones, who is co-chairman of Joelle Jones for a Better West Lafayette campaign. “The thought to ask permission never, ever crossed our minds. We were completely shocked.”

By Thursday morning, minutes before the early vote center opened, Holmgren gave some ground: Candidates could campaign, person-to-person, on the days polling places were open and within guidelines set out by the county election board for all other polling places.

“I’m happy with Purdue’s response,” Donny Jones said. “But we were absolutely ready to seek an injunction from a Tippecanoe County judge if that first word we got was the final ruling. That’s how important we thought it was.”

Problem solved. For now.

“We’re all figuring it out as we go,” Spencer said Thursday about campaigning on campus.

Spencer and the other students running for city council earlier this year had to push the university to allow them to campaign door-to-door in residence halls. Purdue allowed it, but only with permission, during certain hours and with a university escort. Spencer said he hasn’t pressed for more but was under the impression that campaigning on campus would mean getting a permit.

“I don’t necessarily call myself the master on all rules, but that’s how I understood — that we’d need to get permission to do much,” Spencer said.

Schultz said that while Purdue opens the Stewart Center and the Union as polling places, the university retains the right to restrict use of the property “that are primarily dedicated to its educational and research mission.”

“They are not ‘traditional public fora’ or ‘designated public fora’ from a First Amendment perspective,” Schultz said.

Instead, as part of the university’s new free speech policies, Purdue has designated areas — including the Purdue Mall and the Memorial Mall — as First Amendment fair game.

On Thursday, as candidates were still sorting out their situation, the malls were filled with male students wearing bras to raise awareness of breast cancer, callouts for an upcoming zombie walk, students collecting pledges to fight Alzheimer’s disease and tons of chalked messages for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

And Brother Jed’s crew, telling tour groups of prospective students and their parents to avoid Purdue if they didn’t want to get sexually transmitted diseases and go to hell.

“If that guy can do it …” Donny Jones said.

Schultz said candidates won’t need to get permission to campaign — or speak person-to-person — if they stick to the malls or other designated spots at Purdue. And they won’t need to be sponsored by a student group.

“Given that our experience with public election activities is still fairly new in the post-annexation era, we will undoubtedly continue to find process improvement opportunities — as we did with the residence hall experience in the spring,” Schultz said. “We are committed to doing that.”

Donny Jones said he took Purdue at its word on that. But he said he would keep his attorney’s number close, just in case.

On Thursday, voter turnout at Stewart Center measured less than 50, according to Mike Smith, who was staffing the site.

“No problems here — with candidates or anything else,” Smith said.

Spencer said he thought a low turnout might be the case. He said he hadn’t planned to do much campaigning on Thursday, anyway, figuring that a big push nearly three weeks ahead of Election Day might confuse students who might be more prone to vote on Nov. 3.

“My team is geared really hard for Nov. 3 and the days leading up to it,” Spencer said. “We’ll be doing a lot of face-to-face between now and then to explain that Purdue is part of West Lafayette now and why student voices matter. … I guess that’s OK now, right?”

Bangert is a columnist with the Journal & Courier. Contact him at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.