Students will have the opportunity to share their views with the Task Force on Freedom of Expression during today's open meeting in Hotung Café at noon.
The task force, composed of seven faculty and staff members, is hosting the discussion in order to hear from the undergraduate student body, which has no formal representation in the group.
The goal of the task force, created by President Lawrence Bacow in January, is to draft a university-wide policy statement on freedom of expression. This will be presented to the Board of Trustees and can then become official university policy.
Professor Jeswald Salacuse, who chairs the task force, told the Daily last week that the group aims to finish its work by the end of this semester. Its members have been gathering student input over the past few months through meetings with various student groups, including the Tufts Community Union Senate and the Group of Six, which is comprised of the Africana Center, the Asian American Center, the International Center, the Latino Center, the LGBT Center and the Women's Center.
The Senate urged the task force in an April 6 resolution to allot more time before making recommendations to Bacow, asserting that the council "cannot incorporate a satisfactory amount of student input by the end of the 2007-2008 academic year."
Today's meeting had been planned for some time, according to Senator Chas Morrison, a freshman who is on the Committee on Community Values. "In talking to members of the Task Force on Freedom of Expression," he said he learned that "this is something that they've been talking about for months."
In addition, the Senate had encouraged the task force to reach out to a greater number of students by holding an open meeting like the one scheduled today.
Senator Jen Bailey, a junior, said the task force's practice of meeting once with each relevant student group at Tufts is not enough. Bailey serves as the chair of the Senate's Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs Committee.
"I think there needs to be a very concerted effort to talk with a lot of different students on campus," Bailey said. "It's not enough to just meet once with a group of students ... I think that with each revision of the draft, they should be coming back to get [students'] input."
The Senate has also passed its own definition of freedom of speech. They passed a resolution with this definition on March 30, backing policy recommendations to the task force made by the Senate's Committee on Community Values. The Committee on Community Values was set up this semester specifically to provide student input for potential policy recommendations on freedom of expression at Tufts.
The Senate asked President Bacow in November to include student representatives on the task force, but he denied that request.
Students received e-mails on Thursday containing information about today's open meeting. Comments to the task force can also be submitted via the group's Web site at http://freedomofexpression.tufts.edu, or by e-mailing freedomofexpression@tufts.edu.
