FREDRICK MISLEH
STAFF WRITER

When Ashley Wardle was admitted to San Diego State University, she must have been expecting a place where all ideas and beliefs were welcomed and tolerated by all – especially by school officials.

However, while protesting proposed tuition hikes at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 16, 2011, in Long Beach, Wardle was arrested after students were banned from participating in the closed-doors meeting and forcibly removed from CSU Chancellor Charles Reed’s office.

Upon her return to SDSU, Wardle faced an informal hearing regarding her actions. With officials claiming her actions violated the school’s code of conduct, Wardle risked a formal hearing and expulsion if she refused a two-year suspension. After weeks of negotiations, a settlement was presented to the graduate student: the suspension would not be activated; yet Wardle will be ineligible to participate and hold leadership positions in student organizations.

This should boil the blood of every American college student. College is supposed to be an open forum for discussion and the sharing of ideas where the tolerance of said ideas is undisputed. For Elliot Hirshman, the president of SDSU, to even consider suspending a student whom was expressing her opinion is a blatant violation of Wardle’s First Amendment right to free speech.

It seems as though Hirshman wanted to silence all dissent by making a public example of one student – a classic move pulled out of any dictator’s playbook. Had the Chancellor and all the Trustees in attendance allowed dissenting opinions to be heard, chances are high Wardle would not have been arrested.

We as the students who pay tuition, which translates into the six-figure salaries paid to school administrative officials, should have a greater say regarding how much we pay and where that money goes. Until then, no CSU system chancellor or president should infringe upon the First Amendment rights of his or her students.