Henry Calhoun asked VSU Interim President Louis Levy
where are the free areas on campus?
Dr. Levy answered:
Right outside of Palms Quad there’s a free speech thing,
but, as you can see, uh…. [gestures around]
[laughter]
You know, like I said.
If someone’s violating the law here, and creating a dangerous situation
by, uh, physically disrupting the students or faculty, that’s one thing,
we deal with that….But if it’s, even this gnat, we will allow this gnat to….
Henry Calhoun found VSU Interim President Dr. Louis Levy,
who came over to the Occupy Valdosta meeting 27 October.
Erin Hurley invited him to come to the
mid-November Teach-In.
He replied:
…as long as it’s legal and non-obstructive
in terms of people getting in and out of buildings.
We tend to promote free speech.
And if we don’t, we’ll pay the price for it later.…
We actually encourage free discussion and debate.
Besides, I’m a sociologist.
We can take what everyone knows and put them into
four different kinds of perspectives and lenses
just to do battle with each other.
He thanked Erin for the invitation.
VSU students, staff, and faculty who want their next president
to hold positions like that on free speech might want to
get involved with selection of the next VSU president.
Here’s
the video:
We tend to promote free speech.
Information and Organization,
General Assembly, Occupy Valdosta (OV),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 October 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Campus authorities tried getting students to move away from the University
Center where
Governor Nathan Deal was having a luncheon.
The students stood their ground.
Here’s
the video.
Protesting Gov. Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University (VSU), 16 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
The students had been standing on the sidewalk in front of the
