CSUDH’s Free Expression area is located on the concrete pad on the west side of the lower level of the LSU adjacent to the sculpture garden. Photo by Kelsey Reichmann.

By Jordan Darling
News Editor

While many universities in proximity to CSUDH have some form of engagement with free speech issues, such as CSULB’s “Know Your Rights Program” and UC Riverside’s Free Speech Working Group, the goal of our first Free Speech Week, which will be held April 8-12.  is “to really make something for CSUDH that speaks to the specific concerns of our community,” said Brooke Nelson, coordinator of Free Speech.

“We have a really fabulous student body that brings all different kinds of experiences to the campus,” Nelson said, and she wants to ensure that as many as those experiences are reflected by the panel discussions, Q&As and other events that are still being planned.

Much of the programming will be built around a campus-wide survey that was held “a while back to try to figure out what the specific concerns of the people on this campus are,” she said.

Two main questions serve as the themes of the week, Nelson said. The first, “What is Free Speech,” will include a strong educational component that will be part of addressing policies that govern free speech in an attempt to define it. Interactive engagement with the audience is the main component of the second question: “Why Does Free Speech Matter.”