Committee: BSL violated open expression rules

The Black Student League violated the University's Guidelines on Open Expression when it barred two Daily Pennsylvanian staff members from attending a BSL forum February 23, the Committee on Open Expression stated in an advisory opinion Tuesday. The Committee decided that the BSL forum -- which featured a Rutgers University Black Student Union representative speaking on the racial controversy at Rutgers -- was an "event" and not a closed "meeting," and that the BSL erred in excluding the DP staff members from the forum. "[The Committee] concluded that any gathering where sponsors presented it to the entire Penn community, as we read the leaflet concerning the BSL's meeting to have done, is considered an event, which is public, and therefore the DP staff members had a right to attend," Committee Chairperson Larry Gross wrote in a letter to DP Executive Editor Charles Ornstein. After DP staff members were initially barred from the forum, Assistant Vice Provost for University Life Barbara Cassell was contacted about a possible violation of the guidelines. Then, during the forum, Cassell spoke with Terri White, BSL advisor and director of Academic Support Programs, a University-designated Open Expression monitor. But by the time Cassell spoke with White, who then warned BSL president Robyn Kent of the possible violation, the forum had already ended. Ornstein requested an advisory opinion last month from the Committee and received Gross's letter Tuesday. Kent, a College senior, disagreed with the ruling, saying the "forum" was in fact a "meeting." "It was a general meeting that we have once a month on Thursdays at that time," she said. Kent added that after the forum, she spoke to an administrator and several Open Expression monitors, who told her the leaflets "prove it was a meeting and not an event." Kent also said the function was not a forum because the "discussion" with the Rutgers BSU representative was only part of the "general meeting." Ornstein, on the other hand, said the decision was appropriate. "We have maintained that the function was open to the University community, including the press," Ornstein said. He added that he hopes the Committee's decision "sets a precedent" for advertising and admission to future events. Ornstein also said the DP and the BSL are working together to assure that such incidents do not occur in the future.

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