CAMPUS OFFICIALS PASS JUDGMENTAn unscheduled visit by three preachers resulted in university officials requesting the ministry to end their sermon and leave from the Keathley University Center Knoll.
Miles Lewis, Eli Brayley and Evan Schaible visited MTSU Wednesday in representation of their Texas-based ministry, Open Air Outreach.
"We've been on many different public campuses that are always open forums," Brayley said. "We've never had problems using our First Amendment rights but we chose to abide by university regulations. We might take the issue up in court later."
After preaching and attracting a small crowd, a young woman approached the trio and claimed that she had reserved the Knoll and that the group would need a permit if they wanted to stay.
"I believe that this is unconstitutional," Lewis said. "Free speech should be spontaneous and anonymous."
Gene Fitch, vice president for Student Affairs, was asked to speak to the group, and after informing the ministry of university policies, the group concluded their sermon and left.
"They had gathered a group of about 50 or so people," Fitch said. "I explained our policies and asked them if they would like to reschedule a time to reserve space on the Knoll. However, I did inform them that the Knoll was reserved for the day and asked them to leave, and they complied peacefully."
The argument raised by the ministry with Fitch was whether by asking them to leave he was violating their First Amendment rights.
"It is not a violation of the First Amendment," Fitch said. "In fact, in a recent court case, a university's policies were upheld and allowed the university to restrict any event to a reasonable time, place and manor."
The court case referred to by Fitch was Gary Bowman v. University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a civil rights lawsuit in which Bowman alleged that policies held by the university restricted his freedom of speech to preach on campus at any time.
The Arkansas court concluded that the university was a nonpublic forum and upheld policies for it to reasonably regulate time, place and manor of organizations using campus property.
However, the court did find that it was unconstitutional for a university to regulate the number of times a speaker appears on campus a semester.
MTSU policy is similar and requires an organization to reserve a space at least five days in advanced by filling out a reservation form with Student Affairs.
"This procedure is so we can accommodate everyone," Fitch said. "If, one day, there is a lot of activity reserved for the Knoll, then we can help an organization schedule for a different day."
In addition to the unscheduled appearance by the ministry, student reactions were not the most welcoming to their preaching.
"I interjected while Evan was speaking about believing in Jesus and told him my love of philosophy," said Anthony Tabor, freshman undeclared. "His arguments were to prove the existence of God. My opinion was that he did not succeed."
The Open Air Outreach ministry is not unfamiliar with objections to their subjects, Lewis said. Some common topics the groups cover are homosexuality, drunkenness, fornication, moral relativism and other religions.
"Our main goal is to preach the gospel, the Bible and Jesus," Brayley said. "We travel from university to university and we just came for University of Tennessee at Knoxville."
The main complaint among students seemed to be overall presentation of the message.
"I'm glad they have such strong faith and that is a good thing for a lot of people," said Amanda Allison, freshman computer science major. "But how they were doing it was wrong, it was too much fire and brimstone."
According to Allison, the group was picking out people who would purposely engage in arguments.
"One girl who proclaimed herself Christian was blatantly called out and asked if she had sex," Allison said. "They also accused someone else of only wearing a cross because the design looked cool."
"Personally, as a Christian, they were really harsh," said Anastasia Marston, freshman graphic design major. "What I believe he should have done was preach about the love first."
As the ministry left campus, Lewis mentioned the group was headed to either Little Rock or Fayetteville, Ark.
"This is definitely an awesome campus," Brayley said. "It's a shame, we'd really have liked to stay."