William Puka spoke into a megaphone, surrounded by hundreds of cheering students holding picket signs. “I just wanted to say,” he told the crowd, “that the class is going very well so far.” It wasn’t technically a class, but at the same time, it had to be. Without the protections Puka had created by calling the gathering a class, hundreds of students could face the consequences of protesting without permission. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where Puka is a professor, peaceful protests are allowed, as long as an application is submitted -- and approved -- at least seven days in advance. The event’s primary organizers, Daniel Seel and Gregory Bartell, had made the deadline, but just barely. They planned to protest the decision during President Shirley Ann Jackson’s spring town hall meeting Wednesday, and they turned in their application eight days in advance.

March 31, 2016 ・ From Inside Higher Ed