CSU Academic Senate Opposes Interim Time, Place, Manner Policy

Faculty, students, staff, and community members have expressed profound disappointment with an anti-academic freedom of speech policy put forth by the Chancellor’s Office at the start of the Fall term.

The interim Time, Place, Manner (TPM) policy undermines academic freedom across the system’s 23 campuses. It has, among other things, imposed restrictions to face coverings and required advance written permission for posters, signs, banners, and chalking.

This week, the Academic Senate of the California State University (ASCSU) put forth a resolution that strongly condemns the interim “Time, Place, and Manner” (TPM) policy. This comes after CFA members filed an unfair practice charge with the California Public Education Relations Board (PERB). Our CSU Employees Union (CSUEU) siblings also filed an unfair practice charge soon after, and issued an additional “cease-and-desist” letter.

Most notably, the ASCSU resolution highlights the lack of meaningful consultation during the development of the interim policy, which significantly undermines shared governance.

The Academic Senators were also alarmed by the misleading statements coming from the Chancellor’s Office suggesting that the new “directive” applied to faculty (or any represented employee) prior to CFA meeting and conferring with management. Our PERB charge alleges that the CSU administration failed to bargain in good faith with our members and that they had established a new code of conduct that implicates performance and discipline of faculty.

They further expressed concerns about the discriminatory and uneven way that the policy is being enforced. They witnessed an increased level of policing and surveilling of faculty, students, and staff, resulting from the interim policy, a burden that disproportionately affects Black and brown community members.

Ultimately, ASCSU has requested an immediate suspension of the policy’s enforcement and has called on management to develop a new framework that respects our rights.

The day after Academic Senators approved the resolution, faculty, students, and staff voiced their strong disapproval of the interim policy at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach.

In a blatant attempt to exercise control, Chancellor Garcia barred public comment speakers and reporters from using restrooms inside the Chancellor’s Office, the very place in which their public comments were being heard. Instead, they were directed to use portable toilets across the street. Speakers were also refused access to water fountains.

During public comment, the CSU trustees continued their practice of interrupting, silencing, and disrespecting CFA President Charles Toombs from making his public comment, despite allowing many other speakers to indiscriminately exceed their allotted time.

“The Interim TPM policy is yet another systemic example of how the CSU administration devalues and disrespects the current generation of majority students of color,” said Toombs. “They are to be locked down, their behavior to voice their rights of freedom of expression is criminalized, they are to be controlled.”

Alerting CSU management of being on the wrong side of traditions of academic freedom, Kevin Wehr, CFA Bargaining Chair and Sacramento State Professor, said, “If these unethical policies were in place in the 1960s, students would have been punished for joining civil rights and anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. If they were in place in 1968, they would have been used to quash the student strike for ethnic studies at San Francisco State. This policy would have stifled the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and any other force for justice you could care to think about.”

Jeff Newcomb, CFA East Bay President and Lecturer at CSU East Bay, addressed the vague and harmful language written in the policy. “The language invites misinterpretation, racial bias, and overly zealous enforcement. And this policy is missing any fingerprints of authentic shared governance,” said Newcomb.

The week prior, more than 230 CFA members attended the first unionwide CFA Time, Place, Manner Townhall to learn more about the interim policy, ask questions, and share concerns regarding how we can organize around the issue.

A follow-up unionwide townhall will be scheduled for later next month, so please be on the lookout for a registration link.

We will continue to work with ASCSU and our union siblings to address these concerns and do away with any policy that will hamper free speech and academic freedom.

If you are facing investigation, please be in touch with your chapter’s field representative and faculty rights team.