Kiosks and Free Speech

THE UNIVERSITY'S decision to erect seven expensive kiosks in the Yard and to prohibit posters on walls is ostensibly a measure to keep the Yard beautiful, but in reality serves to restrict communication among students. It is especially crippling to new and unorthodox groups that must rely heavily on posters to publicize their positions and activities.

College administrators followed a traditional--and reprehensible--path by railroading the new "kiosk rule" through the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) in an "emergency" meeting during reading period last spring. The kiosks greeted students as a fait accompli this fall, and despite objections by many undergraduate organizations, administrators have given every indication they will enforce the rule through warnings, fines and, ultimately, revocation of official privileges from disobedient organizations.

If undergraduate organizations stand together, however, the "kiosk rule" must fall. It is too late to rip the kiosks out of the ground, but student groups can demand that the prohibition of posters on walls be dropped and that the kiosks be properly maintained to eliminate piles of old, unreadable notices.

If CHUL and College administrators refuse to change the kiosk rule, undergraduate organizations should band together and hang their signs wherever they please--on walls, lamp-posts, doorways and windows--until Harvard returns to a policy of free expression.