Pubdate: Wed, 18 Apr 2012
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103
Author: Erika Stutzman, for the Camera editorial board

CLOSING CAMPUS ON 4/20 AN OVERREACH

Threatening Visitors With Jail, Heavy Fines Goes Too Far

If you are not affiliated with the University of Colorado, just being 
caught on the sprawling campus between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday 
comes with the threat of up to six months in jail and a $750 fine. 
Yes, there will be authority figures asking to see your CU-issued "papers."

The threat is part of the response to the 4/20 marijuana smoking 
event that has become an annual gathering on the Norlin Quad, and an 
annual headache for school administrators who don't want their school 
closely associated with partying or pot.

The school first announced that a crackdown was coming, and it 
started to sink it that more than the usual 30 or so smokers were 
probably going to get tickets for smoking illegally. There was talk 
of parking restrictions. The student-run Program Council scheduled a 
free concert for students Friday afternoon with the artist Wyclef Jean.

But then CU went off the rails.

"By closing the campus to visitors, establishing checkpoints, 
assigning uniformed officers to check papers and threatening arrests 
of visitors without proper credentials, the university does a 
disservice to the values that underlie the First Amendment and the 
constitutionally protected right to dissent," said Mark Silverstein, 
legal director of the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

We agree.

It is interesting that the campus shut down is occurring just one 
week after the annual Conference on World Affairs, featuring free 
events and discussions on everything from public policy to sex. While 
some people attend to enjoy the discourse, one of its best qualities 
is the sheer draw of the campus to the public. It highlights a public 
university filled with spaces where everyone from senior citizens to 
high school students take advantage of what a university has to offer 
a community, which is a lot more than diplomas.

It has been rightfully noted that historically, Halloween and 
football -- particularly winning a Big 12 football championship -- 
have been far more dangerous "nuisances" as far as public safety in 
Boulder has been concerned.

A short-term gathering of 10,000 people is certainly a "nuisance" for 
some. But the approach of scheduling a free concert, threatening to 
ticket more smokers, and enhanced patrols looking for impaired 
drivers might have culled the crowd. They are certainly reactions in 
line with protecting freedom of speech and public safety at the same 
time. (Including the tickets, smokers: If you want to risk breaking 
the law as a bold act of "protest," then risking a ticket is part of 
that. If you just wanted to be granted a risk-free public space to 
smoke marijuana, then it's not a protest at all.)

But closing the university campus from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. to the 
public, with checkpoints and requirements for pre-registration for 
visitors, as well as closing down the Norlin Quad to every human 
being including faculty and students, is a total overreaction to 4/20 at CU.
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