Free speech coordinators monitor as students hold ‘die-in’ outside BP conference

At a conference on Friday, May 5, executives from oil and gas companies British Petroleum (BP) and members of the University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), an academic research program within the High Meadows Environmental Institute, were met the sight of students lying on the Julius Romo Rabinowitz (JRR) atrium floor with their mouths duct-taped and eyes closed.

At the event, the University also had two Free Speech Coordinators present. These are staff members selected to “attend various campus programs, meetings, and events where University policy on freedom of expression may be challenged.” Bryce Springfield ’25, who was in attendance, described the presence of the Free Speech Coordinators as “Orwellian.”