Last month, the student group Harvard Right to Life staked 140 flags on a campus green in a display they called a "Cemetery of the Innocents." The flags represented the "140 lives taken by abortion per hour," said the group's president, Mary Anne Marks.
But people stepped on the flags, and one bicyclist attempted to uproot them, Marks said.
Because of recent controversies like this one on the Harvard and Cornell campuses, pro-life student groups have woken up to the degree of opposition they face within the universities' communities. In late October, members of the Cornell Coalition for Life clashed with administrators over signs they had placed on the Engineering Quad. In the same few days, Harvard Right to Life reported vandalism of its posters around campus.
The group then began systematically documenting how many of its posters were being taken down and covered up and what was covering them, Marks said.
"About a third of our posters were being taken down each week," she said.
The group then sent the information it had compiled to administrators in Harvard's Student Life and Activities Office.
In response, Associate Dean of Student Life and Activities Judith Kidd e-mailed all students on Oct. 23 about "a serious and persistent disrespect for the rights of students to poster on campus." The e-mail urged students to respect other students' opinions and their right to free expression.
The e-mail made no reference to any specific student group being targeted by acts of vandalism.
At Cornell, Administrative Assistant Dawn Warren removed CCFL's "Elena Campaign" signs from the Engineering Quad on the morning of Oct. 22.
The signs depicted the fetal development of "Elena" from 30 hours to two weeks old. "A person's a person, no matter how small," the signs stated along with educational information about fetal development.
According to the press release that CCFL sent out later that day, Warren and Cathy Dove, associate dean for administration in Cornell's College of Engineering, refused to allow CCFL to put their display up again. The press release also said that Dove and Warren claimed that the signs were not allowed on the Engineering Quad because of an "unwritten policy," although the group had received proper administrative approval for its display.
This "unwritten policy" states that all signs on the Engineering Quad must be engineering-related, said Katie Weible, president of CCFL.
After their brief removal, the signs were put up again before 11 a.m. the same day, according to Weible. The next day, Dean of Engineering Kent Fuchs sent an e-mail to all students, faculty and staff denying CCFL's statement that the incident represented an issue of free speech, Weible said.
CCFL released a second statement on Oct. 24 standing by its original characterization of the events, Weible said. The university has not responded since.
Weible said she was especially disappointed that the same signs were posted on the Art Quad without encountering any trouble. She said the administration had maintained that it was not customary for students to put up controversial displays on the Engineering Quad.
"It doesn't make sense to me," said Weible, who is an engineering student.
Fuchs said that the College of Engineering has initiated a process for developing official guidelines about posting materials on the Engineering Quad. A policy will be decided by the end of the semester, Fuchs said.
"What we will do is have policies that encourage free speech, freedom of expression."
But CCFL's members do not necessarily feel they can express themselves freely on Cornell's campus.
"Cornell sort of protects everyone's freedom of speech, except for, sometimes, the more conservative view," Weible said.
At Harvard, Marks said, "There's been pretty lively discussion in terms of what freedom of speech means and how far that should go."
"We're happy that we've been able to have discussions about it," she added. "Although this is definitely negative feedback, it's always somewhat encouraging to know that what you're doing is making a difference rather than not being noticed at all." Harvard Right to Life's relationship with the campus community has varied over the years, said Marks, a junior who has been involved with the group since her freshman year. The group faced similar challenges in 2003, when many of its posters were taken down, Marks said. Before this year's incident, the group had seen fewer of its signs removed or damaged.
"It did not happen last year when the previous leadership of the club was definitely pursuing a noncontroversial, noneducational type of campaign," Marks said.
"What is positive is that the administration has stood up for freedom of speech" this year, Marks said.
Sara Berglund '09, co-president of Brown Students for Life, said her group has never had problems with administrators.
From her classmates, Berglund has received surprised reactions toward her pro-life views, but not negative ones, she said.
"I think people at Brown are generally receptive to new ideas, so I think the students here are pretty open and willing to listen," Berglund said.
