Mead's "Free Wall" and the State of Campus Free Speech

I read in The Student Life about the free wall over at Mead and was stuck by this comment from a Pitzer student. Emphasis is mine.

Olivia Pollock PI ‘11 said that the free wall is supposed to be an alternative to submitting a proposal through what she called “the bureaucracy of Pitzer College.”

“The wall will make it possible for anyone on the campus to put up their work/piece of mind in that exact moment—without going through any group of editors,” said Pollock. “I understand that the Aesthetics Committee at Pitzer is extremely lenient, and the hall councils seem to be as well—in my understanding they approve mostly all requests, but I would argue against having any sort of committee for artistic approval.” Pollock said that the artwork and murals at Pitzer attracted her to the school.

Apparently, there has been a big worry that the "free wall" might expand. Oh no!

I'm sympathetic to anyone who wants to go and create something in a free space despite the wishes of the Pitzer "bureaucracy," but I worry about these so-called free expression zones. I take the view that I once heard about free expression zones that you should take a map, look at it, and see all that land been the U.S. and Mexico? Good, that's your free speech zone. It's called America.

Still, I wonder if the effort isn't an exercise in futility. By allowing anyone to paint over anything, you might hope to achieve the togetherness and content of a wikipedia page where edits can be retracted. But when someone labors to create something beautiful only to have it painted over, you cannot help but let emotions run a little hot, even at Pitzer where everyone is supposedly mellow. As I learned in the comment section of this blog, oftentimes property rights need to supersede the wish that everyone play nice in the sandbox. If you let the masses control something without giving a means of self-policing i.e. Wikipedia, you will descend into anarchy or Lol cats. Witness Claremont Confessions and the ugly turn it took. (If you're interested in that kind of stuff, I recommend Clay Shirky's book, Here Comes Everybody.)

I give the free speech wall little time.