Free speech zones are the ultimate in Orwellian newspeak.

Note the ironic title from Inside Higher Ed.

Safeguarding Free Speech

The City University of New York is considering a new policy on freedom of expression. Administrators say the policy affirms the university’s commitment to safeguarding free speech at a time of protests and politically contentious debates. But critics argue that the policy actually inhibits free speech by imposing new restrictions on some expressive activities.

“The policy was in response to a lot of events that were occurring across university campuses that were raising issues about the primacy of freedom of expression and what limitations might apply,” said Frederick Schaffer, general counsel and senior vice chancellor for legal affairs at CUNY. “Some of the issues arose in the context of Black Lives Matter and debate over Israel-Palestine. We looked and we didn’t have a specific policy on this, and we thought this would be an appropriate time.”

The CUNY Board of Trustees will hold a public hearing on the policy today and vote on it next week.

The policy — officially called the Policy on Freedom of Expression and Expressive Conduct — resulted from a yearlong effort by a working group chaired by Schaffer. The working group went through several drafts of the policy and solicited feedback and approval from the University Student Senate and the Executive Committee of the University Faculty Senate, Schaffer said.

Most notably, the working group recently revised the policy in response to concern from the University Faculty Senate and others over the designation of acceptable areas for demonstrations, Schaffer said. A previous version of the policy stated that students and employees could only hold demonstrations in public areas on campus “that have been designated by the educational units of CUNY for demonstrations.”

“I’ve heard some people say they were suspicious that this was intended to further restrict the right of demonstration, which was really never the intent,” Schaffer said. “But if people felt that way, we listened to those concerns and took out the provision for these designations of areas in advance.”