Political Censorship at Stanford U.

SCAI member students reported as follows:
The Old Union [building] administration approved a photo exhibit hosted by Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel (SCAI) to remain in Old Union April 7-April 21.

Due to anonymous complaints after the exhibit had been up for only two days, the administration of Stanford's Old Union building removed the display on Wednesday, April 9th, without successfully reaching any SCAI student to notify them of the decision to remove the photos.

In a recent meeting with student leaders, the Director of Old Union explicitly stated that while she has the authority to re-instate the exhibit, she has no intention of Old Union being a place of free political speech for students; and while she could not present any policy to this end, she claims that "controversial political exhibits" have no place in the building. This comes just several weeks after another student organization put up a photo display illuminating "acts of intolerance" at Stanford.

This incident of political censorship reveals the severe institutional restraints on student free speech at Stanford; we must take action NOW to pressure Old Union administrators to ensure that Old Union is declared a place for open political expression.