In the final minutes of the special session in 2012, Senator Kevin Lundberg took a moment to notify the Senate of a concern he has regarding First Amendment rights being suppressed on the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado.
A new policy had been adopted which prevents any “canvassing” on the campus without specific permission from the school. “Canvassing,” for their purposes, is defined as handing anything to anybody on the campus.
Lundberg pointed out that even if permission is granted, the activity is still restricted to a limited number of locations on the campus. This prohibition applies to citizen’s initiative petitions, and anyone “…offering information about services or sales; and/or distributing any literature, flier, coupon book, sample, promotional item, coupon or any other tangible item.” All types of groups are being affected by this policy. Earlier this year, the Gideons International group was prevented from holding their annual Bible distribution project on the Boulder campus of CU.
Lundberg stated “Our state’s flagship institution of higher education should be a place where ideas are freely exchanged, not a place of censorship.”
A complete copy of the school’s policy can be found at: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/CUUF