Student protest causes debate on free speech

By DARYL LANG
Collegian Staff Writer

After Gina Giazzoni took part in a disruptive demonstration at a Penn State Young Americans for Freedom-sponsored speech in December, she figured she had made her point and the issue was over. Giazzoni, 22, graduated from Penn State a few weeks later.

But in February, she received a letter from the Penn State Office of Judicial Affairs telling her because of the incident, she was on an "indefinite registration hold" and was not eligible to re-enroll at Penn State unless she resolved the matter.

Giazzoni is one of three people -- all of whom were Penn State students in the Fall Semester -- who YAF President Christopher Gillott reported to Judicial Affairs because they disrupted the speech Dec. 3 in Kern Building.

As a result, Judicial Affairs contacted all three students and accused them of violating Penn State's Code of Conduct in disrupting the event.

One of the accused students, Heather Solimini (junior-women's studies), decided to accept a disciplinary warning on her academic record rather than draw out the process of contesting the charge.

The third student named in the complaint, Erin Colton, 21, could not be reached for comment, but her roommate, Solimini, said Colton is not taking classes at Penn State this semester.

YAF sponsored the speech during which Star Parker, an outspoken conservative black woman and the head of the nonprofit Coalition on Urban Renewal, spoke about the flaws of the welfare system.

Seven students protested Parker's views by interrupting the question-and-answer session after the speech. The students dressed in fatigues, blew whistles and staged a skit in which they shouted sarcastic slogans to show their support of welfare for poor women.

Gilliott said he decided to report the names of the three demonstrators he could identify because he noticed an increasing level of disruptive behavior at YAF-sponsored speeches.

"We thought this went too far and that something needed to be done about it," Gilliott said.

But Giazzoni thought the reprimand from Judicial Affairs violated her First Amendment rights.

"I think this is very ironic that a group (YAF) that stands for freedom is saying 'Oh, these people should not have spoken up and the First Amendment does not apply here,' " Giazzoni said.

YAF's faculty adviser, David Saxe, wrote a 4,300-word letter to Penn State President Graham Spanier in which he used the demonstration as a springboard to discuss the issue of free speech at the university.

In the Jan. 23 letter, posted on YAF's World Wide Web site, Saxe said the university had violated the First Amendment rights of Parker and YAF members by not punishing the students who disrupted the speech.

At the time of the letter, Gilliott had filed his complaint with Judicial Affairs but Judicial Affairs had not yet contacted the students involved.

After Giazzoni spoke to Joseph Puzycki, director of Judicial Affairs, she contacted a lawyer. Her lawyer sent an e-mail to Puzycki to request the removal of the punishments and an apology from the university.

Penn State's law firm, McQuaide Blasko, responded in a Feb. 26 letter by pointing out the charge had already been dropped because of Giazzoni's graduation.

"The university had no concerns about the content of Ms. Giazzoni's 'political speech,' but her conduct in disrupting the speech of the invited speaker was improper and warranted imposition of the disciplinary warning," said the letter, provided by Giazzoni.

Solimini said she thought Judicial Affairs handled the situation fairly, but wished YAF had never filed a complaint in the first place.

"I thought it was actually kind of petty," said Solimini. "In the grand scale of things, it doesn't really mean too much."

• YAF Responds
• YAF Letter to University President Spanier
• YAF World Wide Web site
• Speech ends in heated protest