Imagine having to tell your parents you got expelled from school because you couldn't walk fast enough. That's just what college students in Ohio might have to do. \nGovernor Bob Taft signed a law requiring state universities to expel any students convicted of aggravated riot, disorderly conduct or failure to disperse, not allowing the students back into the state university system for one year.\nAdditionally, the law makes those students ineligible for financial aid for two years. While this law might have good intentions, we feel the law is too broad and harsh, and it will inevitably have an effect on students' rights to free speech and assembly. Also, we feel that the universities themselves are able to effectively punish their students without the help of the state legislature.\nThe law has good intentions. After Ohio State beat Michigan in football last November, 45 students were arrested after riots broke out at Ohio State causing more than 100 fires and extensive property damage. Certainly we feel those who participate in riots should be punished.\nHowever, a law like the one just passed goes too far. Equating a conviction of aggravated riot (a felony with possible jail time of up to 18 months) with a conviction for failure to disperse (a minor misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $100) is unjustifiably harsh when considering the zero-tolerance, automatic expulsion. \nFurthermore, this law potentially could reach students who might have been at most marginally involved in the riot. Richard McKaig, IU's vice chancellor for student affairs and dean of students, expressed similar concern. \n"Those arrested or identified (in student riots) are not always those most responsible for the event. The first response to crowd situations that get out of hand is usually to seek to disperse the group. Some of those arrested have been on the fringes of the group and did not move as quickly as requested," he said.\nIn addition to being harsh and too broad, this law will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on students' rights to free speech and peaceable assembly. Out of fear of such harsh repercussions, fewer students will want to risk engaging in peaceful, lawful protests. Worse yet, schools and police departments can pick and choose which demonstrations and protests in which to arrest students for failure to disperse or disorderly conduct. There is nothing to stop school administrators from calling the police to disperse protests that support "unpopular causes" or political agendas different from those the university might have.\nIn the end, colleges and universities should be able to deal with student rioters without any mandatory requirements from the state legislature. As McKaig said, "University codes like (IU's) that allow students to be sanctioned up to and including expulsion for participating in group violence, but provide for a local assessment of the student's culpability, seem better than a stat law with a prescribed sanction."\nTaking away discretion and mandating a blanket zero-tolerance rule is always dangerous. We think this law is well-intended but will end up unjustifiably punishing too many students and will chill free speech in the process.
-- Andrew LeMar for the Editorial Board
