Laborers’ International of North America hosted a rally for free speech at Jesse Hall on Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. to advocate for the free speech rights of University of Missouri employees. The event was held in response to an email UM System President Mun Choi issued to all staff members, which emphasized particular restrictions when expressing their personal opinions on current worldly affairs.
“Employees do not have unlimited rights to speak as citizens on matters of public concern,” the email stated. “Speech that causes significant disruption can be a basis for discipline or termination, even when it occurs off-duty.”
Community members and students gathered outside Jesse Hall holding signs and participating in chants, all of which derived from the same notion: a demand for free speech. A variety of speakers, including Mizzou staff, students and Columbia residents, spoke out during the rally, sharing their own personal convictions.
“If you suppress speech, it goes underground,” said Kathy Kiely, Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies. “It doesn’t go away, it goes underground and it festers. I think now is the time that we really have to lean into dialogue and free expression, even if it hurts, because that really is the only way we’re going to reclaim the marketplace of ideas.”
Cathy Persinger has been working at Mizzou facilities as a custodian for roughly two decades. She believes the employee environment is not the same as the one that initially attracted her to this job.
“President Choi is saying now we can be threatened with termination of what we say off the clock,” Persinger said. “About 20 years ago when I first got ready to start working for the university, all I heard my dad say, who used to work here, was ‘One Mizzou, one family.’ 20 years later, please tell me where’s the family part of this.”
This protest aimed at creating community, bringing recognition and giving a voice to those who were in danger of being silenced.
“I think it’s just important to show that we have people fighting and showing that solidarity,” said Sahar Bhutto, board member of the Mizzou chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America. “It’s affecting everyone because the minute you don’t fight for it, it’s gonna come for you.”
Interest groups, including LiUNA, have been advocating for citizens rights for decades to increase awareness of abused power.
“Our call to action is that we think that President Choi should rescind his statement and issue a clarifying statement that concerted activity around wages, benefits and working conditions, and the administration of the university will not be grounds for termination or discipline,” Andrew Hutchinson, head public organizer for LiUNA, said.
Due to community backlash, the university responded to the intentions behind Choi’s email.
“The University respects the rights of its employees to speak as citizens on matters of public concern,” Mizzou Deputy Spokesperson Travis Zimpfer said. “President Choi’s Sept. 17 email reaffirmed that principle and supported employees with information on how to exercise their rights appropriately within the limits of First Amendment protections.”
Choi made an appearance towards the beginning of the rally, declining the offer to stay or to take questions, but he responded to the activists with a smile.
The free speech rally brought together individuals who refuse to be censored in both their work and personal lives.
“In some ways, I think President Choi may have been trying to be protective of his staff,” Kiely said. “But it’s the idea that somehow there will be consequences for speech, I think is a dangerous road to go down for us. The idea that somehow, if we zip our lips and keep our mouth shut, maybe the big bad guys won’t come after us. History tells us that that strategy never worked.”
