Classrooms, Lectures, and Public Events

The classroom is at the core of Stanford’s educational mission—disruption in that setting has a profound effect on the functioning of the university and therefore is treated quite seriously. The 1968 Campus Disruptions Policy explicitly prohibits such disruptions. Not only do classroom disruptions deprive other students in the class of the educational program they have come to Stanford to receive, they also make students an unwilling audience, as they may be more reluctant to leave a class than they would an extracurricular event or lecture. Even if the disruption ends, the rest of the class period may be lost as the instructor has difficulty regaining the class’s focus. Moreover, classrooms are spaces reserved for academic use not only during class meeting times, but also the time immediately before or after classes. Instructors often use the time before or after class to talk with students, hand out materials, and prepare the classroom. 

The purpose and nature of classes as distinguished from optional or extracurricular campus events requires a more stringent interpretation of disruptions to avoid interference with the educational environment and ensure that instructors retain pedagogical control over their classrooms. If students enrolled or invited to the class are engaging in expressions that do not disrupt the class or impede the access or participation of others, such as wearing clothing with slogans, displaying small signs or stickers on their laptops without interfering with any class member’s ability to view or hear, or participating in interactive components of class in ways that are consistent with and do not disrupt the class format, such as by asking questions during a designated question and answer time, this will not disrupt the operation of the class in most situations. Ultimately, however, it is the purview of the individual instructor to determine whether activities are interfering with classroom learning, and students must leave or cease any such conduct upon an instructor’s direction. For example, an instructor has latitude to determine that questions are not germane to the curriculum they intend to cover in the class session and that further pursuing the off-topic questions is disruptive to the course material that needs to be covered, or, similarly, that the educational benefit of further discussion on one line of questioning is diminishing, and that the class needs to move on to other topics. Any departure from the day’s syllabus to address public or “breaking news” events is likewise at the discretion of the instructor, who determines how much time can be allocated to such discussion. Similarly, waving signs or attempting to display media, standing up in a classroom where students are otherwise sitting, or other behavior that is distracting from the class presentation may be deemed by the instructor to be an interference. Instructors also can ask students and other persons not enrolled in the class to leave the classroom. Students continuing any such conduct after being warned by the instructor to stop will be considered to be violating the disruption policy, as will students who refuse to leave the classroom when instructed to do so.

Lectures by invited speakers as well as approved public events are also protected from disruption under the 1968 Campus Disruption Policy. Nor are disruptions in this context shielded from consequences through the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as applied to Stanford through California’s Leonard Law. As Provost Martinez has previously explained, “A university classroom setting for a guest speaker invited by a student organization is . . . a setting where the First Amendment tolerates greater limitations on speech than it would in a traditional public forum. The ‘nature of a meeting’ in an indoor university classroom, under settled First Amendment law, does not countenance the same sort of “prolonged, raucous, boisterous demonstrations” that might be acceptable at an outdoor rally . . . . Rather, different ‘customs and usages’ apply in a setting like a planned lecture in a reserved room on campus.”