{"id":21234,"date":"2024-06-04T17:10:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T01:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=21234"},"modified":"2024-06-04T17:11:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T01:11:04","slug":"freedom-of-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/freedom-of-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom of expression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Hannah Field | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Western\u2019s Freedom of Expression event occurred May 10, 2024, where students, faculty and any interested persons gathered to discuss amplifying voices, advocating for important causes and civic engagement. The event was sponsored by Western\u2019s Humanities and Social Science Divisions and ran from 9:45 a.m. \u2013 2 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Planning for the event took months, beginning in the fall and eventually culminating in the successful orchestration of a group discussion this spring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Organizer and professor in Political Science, Mary Pettenger, described the collective goal of the event. \u201cOur hope was to really get them to think about ways they can actually make change. We gave them handouts on different strategies about how you might go about (with) the change, but also, for us, it was important,\u201d said Pettenger. \u201cWe\u2019ve all experienced (being unable) to articulate what it is that you want.\u201d<\/span>
<\/span>The event fostered a safe space for open-ended discussion, ranging from First Amendment rights to worldwide news, which Pettenger deemed successful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with the workshop that I emphasize is that it\u2019s all a personal choice,\u201d said Pettenger. \u201cAll of these actions are personal. You have to commit, to want to do it, and you have to commit yourself, your time and your energy to these things. And I think that it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tablings and panels, such as this one, exist to provide students with a \u201cfoot in the door\u201d \u2014 a method of experiencing discussions centered around civic engagement, limiting commitment while allowing for accessibility and an open window into opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event organized a strategies workshop at 10:15 a.m. before transitioning to \u201cConversations about Freedom of Expression\u201d at 12:30 p.m. Sections were purposefully added to address multiple ways to garner support and advocate for a cause while evaluating the fine lines of civil disobedience and the true definition of freedom of expression.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother goal we had in the event was to start conversations on campus because it hasn\u2019t been (the best) space to have these conversations,\u201d said Pettenger. \u201cEverybody has perceived that students are unwilling to share for a variety of reasons. Either they\u2019re worried about being attacked or they don\u2019t feel comfortable sharing their views \u2014 they don\u2019t feel safe in that space. So we wanted to have more of a conversation, a place where people can have conversations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pettenger added that the workshop may be replicated in the next academic year, possibly with different topics of discussion, so students will have to keep an eye out to catch it.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}