Olivia Russo
Editor-in-Chief
The Faculty Assembly unanimously approved a revised “Policy on Assembly and Demonstrations” for protests on campus on Wednesday. The policy now goes to the provost and president for final approval.
The compromise policy comes almost a year after the Faculty Assembly voted to reject a demonstration policy put forth by the administration, which called for pre-clearance by Campus Safety among others, it also restricted the type of signs that could be carried, and required any campus protest to end by 8 p.m.
Even though the faculty had rejected the administration’s policy, administrators put it in place until a new compromise policy could be worked out.
Jason Neidleman, professor of political science, and Alessandro Morosin, assistant professor of sociology and criminology, have worked for the last several months with Juan Regalado, dean of students, to hammer out a compromise policy.
“The first draft we got back really integrated a lot of the suggestions we made,” Neidleman said at the Faculty Assembly meeting. “It essentially reframed the policy away from the authority of administrators to shut down a demonstration to the rights of the expression of the students to demonstrate.”
The compromise policy allows for spontaneous demonstrations to occur on campus, but they should not exceed an hour. Demonstrations that are to happen overnight must get approval by Campus Safety and the Office of Student Leadership and Engagement. Law enforcement can still be contacted if safety concerns are not resolved, but only if the University has exhausted all other options of stopping the unsafe conditions.
Regalado will now bring the policy to top administrators and University council for the final approval.
The policy approved Wednesday went through many revisions. In December 2025, the Faculty Assembly declined to endorse the policy, giving both Morosin and Niedleman suggestions on how to fix it.
“There’s a little bit of blood on the floor on this, and I think we’ve done a good job,” George Keeler, Faculty Assembly president and professor of journalism, said during the Wednesday meeting.
“This is not our policy, it’s not the administration’s policy, but a compromise and it seems to be a really good compromise,” Keeler added.
After the assembly meeting, Niedleman met with Regalado to discuss the faculty-approved draft and both agreed to move the proposed policy to focus on student expression.
The policy had been reviewed by top administrators and general counsel before the Assembly meeting Wednesday, so an official pass is expected.
“I feel significant improvement of what was originally presented to us last spring, and then even the beginning of fall,” Morosin said. “It doesn’t have everything that I would be happiest (with) but this is a lot better. And it’s a product of everybody coming together and voicing where they’re coming from based on our University values.”
In March 2025 Regalado shared the administration’s initial “Policy on Assembly and Demonstrations” with the Faculty Assembly. It raised concerns immediately with the faculty who felt it inhibited their free speech at a time when students and faculty have so much to protest.
“We want to make it happen in the way that the University would support from an impartial and in spirit perspective…,” Regalado said at Wednesday’s Assembly meeting. “We’ve added things, I wanted to make sure we had as much consensus as possible to get.”
The compromise draft is very different from the original.
“It’s fairly protective of student expressions, but it also gives the University a lot of authority to break up a demonstration,” Niedleman said. “My personal opinion is that it doesn’t go far enough to protect student expression.”
Olivia Russo can be reached at olivia.russo@laverne.edu.
Olivia Russo is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print/online journalism and a minor in criminology. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Campus Times for Spring 2026. She has previously served as the News Editor, LV Life Editor, a photographer and a staff writer for the Campus Times, as well as a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine.
