Resources
Additional Information
-
Incident Nature:
Rally or protest
Other
-
Incident Political Orientation:
Left wing -
Incident Responses:
University administration changed university policy as a consequence
Other
-
Incident Status:
No litigation
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
Penn’s new Temporary Standards and Procedures for Campus Events and Demonstrations—issued June 6, 2024—require news media to show credentials on request and allow University Communications (and potentially campus police) to confine filming to specified areas during demonstrations, a provision critics say infringes on press freedom. The ACLU of Pennsylvania calls it a “blatant First Amendment violation,” objecting especially to police asking reporters to stop recording. Anne Tamburro, a student press counsel for FIRE, warns that vague credentialing powers could enable viewpoint discrimination, and the Student Press Law Center urges clearer, narrowly tailored restrictions rather than blanket authority. These guidelines—which also ban encampments and expand the vice provost’s control over all campus events—were adopted in response to rising protest activity and recommendations from Penn’s Task Force on Antisemitism and Presidential Commission on Countering Hate.
