It has a symbol of the Chinese Communist Party in it, which should make it obvious it was referring to the Chinese government and not the Chinese people, one TPUSA student said of the sticker.
The student went on to say that school administrators suspended the TPUSA group the following day, without talking to the students or asking them to provide any explanation for their material.
The stickers, Gilligan said, included anti-Chinese messaging that is inconsistent with the Colleges values and will not be tolerated on our campus, adding that theexpression of free ideas cannot and should not violate these standards.
At this time in particular, when there has been a rise in anti-Asian sentiment, it is important to denounce all instances of anti-Asian bigotry and hate, and affirm our support and solidarity with the Asian and Asian-American community on campuses and around the world, he wrote.
The interim president added thatEmerson College and itsOffice of Community Standards and Student Conduct will launch an investigation into the stickers.
But the college nonetheless still punished the student group for bias-related behavior, arguing that the sticker couldunintentionally contribute to anti-Asian discrimination, FIRE said.
In one example, administrators prevented one of the TPUSA student leaders fromputting up flyers around campus responding to an op-ed in the student newspaper that had criticized the conservative student organization.
A third instance in November involvedadministrators stopping the TPUSA club fromposting promotional materials around campus for a screening of the documentary What Is A Woman?
The organization says it hopes this complaint to theNECHE will finally forceEmerson to respect free expression on campus.
