Nassau Community College: Free Speech Zone

At a demonstration on July 20, 2011, members of the Nassau Community College Federation of Teachers (NCCFT) were forced to remain behind metal barricades by NCC's Public Safety Office, and warned that their "right to remain on the campus may be forfeited" if they protested outside the zone. NCC again confined faculty behind metal barricades when they held a second protest on August 3, and decided arbitrarily that they could not take their hand-held posters out of the free speech zone while protesting. FIRE wrote to NCC August 16, one day before a third planned protest, pointing out that the establishment of free speech zones far exceeded the college's authority. NCC discontinued use of the metal barricades the next day and acknowledged the faculty's right to demonstrate peacefully throughout the campus.