‘The policy supersedes your First Amendment.’

During a tabling event April 3, the Dean of Students Office prevented UTD Students for Justice in Palestine members from drawing with chalk at the Plinth before forcing them to remove their Palestinian flag, stating that university policy overrides their First Amendment rights. 

SJP had reserved the Plinth from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for its tabling and fundraising efforts by selling juice, keffiyehs and shirts. Around noon, SJP members began to draw out the words “Symbols of Palestine” near their table. By 12:40 p.m., Tricia Losavio, associate dean of health and wellness initiatives, arrived to stop SJP from using chalk. The SJP officers Losavio spoke to said it was their First Amendment right to express themselves with art. Losavio responded, “The policy supersedes your First Amendment.” 

Losavio said if the students did not stop chalking, they would be violating SU policies, which would require disciplinary action. The SJP officers present asked what specific policy they were in violation of, at which point Losavio stepped away to make a phone call. Losavio then returned and said that she would email the policy they were violating if they gave her their names. The SJP officers refused to do so and asked if Losavio would speak with their lawyers over the phone, which she refused. 

After a back and forth, Losavio agreed to send the policy to the UTD SJP Gmail account. Losavio’s email linked to the SU spaces policy page’s graffiti subsection, which prohibits graffiti anywhere in the SU spaces. The policy specifically highlights that chalk on sidewalks can be considered graffiti, and that, if found, an investigation will occur.  

Groups including SJP have been using chalk on campus for years, with prominent uses of chalk as a form of protest occurring during the 2023-2024 academic school year in response to administration removing the Spirit Rocks. In the wake of last year’s encampment, UTD administration made a variety of changes to student free expression policy. One such change that took place before fall 2024 was a new prohibition on chalking.  

On Aug. 29, Student Government received a document from UTD Administration titled “Speech and Expression Guidelines 8-28,” which UTD did not make publicly available at any point. The guidelines do, however, refer to the publicly available UTDSP5001. The guidelines said, “In adherence to UTDSP5001- Speech Expression and Assembly, acts such as chalking, painting, or drawing on any interior or exterior surfaces of the university are not permitted.” UTDSP5001 itself makes no reference to chalking.  

The Retrograde reached out to the Dean of Students Office and Student Affairs regarding SJP’s alleged policy violation and a spokesperson for Student Affairs provided the following statement:  

“Chalking or any manner of expression or programming that involves writing, drawing, painting, or similar acts on university buildings or structures, such as on walls, windows, pavement, etc. are not permitted as a means of expression under UTDSP5001 or UTDSP5002 regarding use of buildings, grounds, and facilities. This applies to members of the general public and all university affiliates. 

Means of expression that are permitted under UTDSP5001 subject to reasonable restrictions on time, place, and manner are distribution of literature, use of signs and banners, use of tables, general exhibits and A-frames, amplified sound, public assemblies, and use of guest speakers.” 

UTDSP5002, which focuses on the use of university facilities, also makes no mention of chalking.  

Aysha Ahmed, political science sophomore and SJP organizer, said UTD was choosing to target SJP’s expression via chalking now when this hadn’t been an issue in the past. Ahmed said that groups like the Fellowship Of Christian University Students had been allowed to chalk regularly on campus this year with no interference. The Dean of Students office declined to comment on the discrepancy in enforcement.   

“As our movement has started to gain more traction on campus and in the world in general, we’ve noticed more and more oppression on minor things, including chalk, and this is just another example of that,” Ahmed said. “Their repression just proves how successful we are in getting our message across.” 

UTD finance junior Kofi Jordan said that he thought it was ironic that when students like him took the time to draw artistic symbols of freedom, they immediately had their artistic freedom crushed. Jordan said that he chose to draw a dove to symbolize the peace and freedom he thinks everyone should have. 

“I think everyone should be free,” Jordan said. “And I think everyone agrees that everyone should be free, so coming in with this aggression against freedom and a bird is really interesting to me. Why can’t they be opposed to the endless bombing of Palestine instead?” 

At 2:10 p.m., an SU staff member forced SJP to take down their Palestinian flag because flag stands violated SU space policy. SJP took down their flag and, ten minutes later, zip tied it to the white poles near the Plinth to avoid having to use a flag stand.  

Ahmed said that campus administration consistently said SJP blocked passageways, disrupted spaces, violated fire safety protocol and other similar infractions in a way that no other student organization experienced to silence their voices.  

“All of these things are just examples of how they plan on repressing us,” Ahmed said. “Once they have reviewed their policy, in almost all these instances they have found we are actually doing nothing wrong and so we have been able to continue with our acts of protest because we are well within our First Amendment rights to protest. But that doesn’t stop the silencing effect their baseless violation claims have in the moment. They may try to silence us, but our voices deserve to be heard in the ways we choose to protest within our rights.”