Southern Illinois U. Says It Won’t Tolerate Activism by Athletes in Uniform, Then Backs Off

Southern Illinois U.

Updated (8/30/2018, 9:48 p.m.) with news that the university had rescinded the ban on shows of activism.

Effective this semester, Southern Illinois University athletes and cheerleaders were barred from showing any sign of activism while in uniform — a decision that ran afoul of the First Amendment, according to some free-speech groups. After an outcry, though, the university rescinded the new ban on Thursday, according to the student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian.

In 2017 three football cheerleaders on the Carbondale campus took a knee while the national anthem was played. The gesture, now seen at high-school, college, and professional sports events, gained prominence when it was begun by the NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2016, as a protest of racism and of police brutality against African-Americans.

Last year, after Southern Illinois’s homecoming football game, Chancellor Carlo D. Montemagno said in a written statement that the university must protect the students’ moral and legal rights to express themselves peacefully. Since then, however, new language was added to the code of conduct, restricting athletes’ ability to demonstrate while in uniform and during a competition or performance, the student newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“Members of the department, including student-athletes, cheerleaders, and spirit members, must remain neutral on any issue political in nature when wearing SIU official uniforms and when competing/performing in official department of athletics events and activities,” the policy said. “Any display (verbal or nonverbal) of activism (either for or against) a political issue will not be tolerated and may result in dismissal from the program.”

Liz Jarnigan, the athletics program’s senior woman administrator, said that as far as she knew, Montemagno’s position hadn’t changed. The athletics department, she said, created the policy because it wanted fans to enjoy sporting events “without having to fear being offended on one topic or another.” Athletes were expected to avoid anything that would “alienate” members of the community, she said.

“We’re not trying to squelch any of our students’ passions at all,” Jarnigan said, adding that athletes may protest and rally for causes when they aren’t officially representing Saluki athletics.

Several free-speech groups cried foul. A central purpose of a public university is “to engage students and the community in the issues of our time,” Ed Yohnka, communications and public-policy director for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a written statement.

“Schools should not threaten students — or hide them away — because they engage in protests that some in the community may not agree with,” he said.

A policy that bans activism across the board, without accounting for the disruption that such demonstrations might cause, would violate the First Amendment, said Zach Greenberg, program officer at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

In general, he said, students have the right to free expression as long as it does not disrupt the “proper functioning” of the school or the athletics program.

‘Compelled Speech’

Athletes do accept certain limitations when they participate in college athletics, Greenberg said. But he cited two U.S. Supreme Court cases that established precedents for the rights of all students. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the court ruled that students don’t shed their ability to express themselves at the schoolhouse gates. And in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the court ruled that schools cannot make students perform acts of patriotism, like saluting the flag or saying the pledge of allegiance.

To bar a student from kneeling during the national anthem is a form of “compelled speech,” said Svetlana Mintcheva, director of programs at the National Coalition Against Censorship.

“It is forcing a message of unity, forcing a student, or anybody else, to make a political message against their will,” she said. Doing so is “clearly unconstitutional” at public universities, she added, arguing that they have a legal obligation to uphold students’ free-speech rights.

The rights of student-athletes aren’t much different than those of other students, Mintcheva said. If a football player “is speaking during the anthem like any other student could speak, they should be treated like any other student,” she said.

Before the additions were rescinded, Jarnigan said their intent wasn’t to infringe on athletes’ self-expression. The athletics department is “very interested” in helping students who want to voice concerns about social-justice issues outside of athletic events, she said. “We’re not interested in taking away anybody’s constitutional rights.”

But the policy proved short-lived. The Egyptian reported on Thursday that the athletics department had backed off. The newspaper quoted Tom Weber, associate athletics director for communications, as saying the department had “somewhat missed the mark” with the policy.

Southern Illinois wasn’t alone in restricting its athletes’ abilities to protest during sporting events. Last year Colorado Christian University told athletes to stand for the national anthem. When Eastern Michigan University caught wind of a planned protest at a football game, it played the national anthem a half-hour before game time instead of right before kickoff. When players on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s women’s basketball team took a knee, Republican legislators criticized the students and threatened to cut the university’s budget.

What worries Mintcheva is not so much that such a policy existed at Southern Illinois, but that it could stay on the books unless it was challenged by an athlete. But athletes might be unwilling to do so because of the repercussions, she said. There’s pressure on them from the institution, and from society at large, to back down.

“You might prevail,” she said, “but in the short term [you] get yourself in trouble.”

Emma Pettit is a staff reporter at The Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.