Protesters question Clemson policy

• Students allowed to display sign Robby Roberts was asked to take down.

CLEMSON UNIVERSITY - About two dozen Clemson students turned out Friday to protest against university's rules governing outsider access to campus audiences. The protesters displayed homemade signs with the word "Prayer" on them and said community minister Robby Roberts should have the same privilege. 

Roberts, 37, spent nearly a week on campus displaying such a sign in Trustee Park, in front of the Fort Hill house. He was approached Aug. 26 by campus administrator Shawn Jones and told to take down the sign, per university rules that restrict outside groups to certain parts of the campus until the student affairs department grants clearance.

Campus Reform, a conservative website that purports to expose liberal bias on college campuses, claimed this week that Roberts was ordered off the campus, but Roberts said in an interview posted on YouTube that he merely turned his sign down and remained at his spot after Jones left.

The encounter was partly captured on video and later posted on several conservative websites, stirring complaints from the student group WeROAR Clemson and others and triggering the rally Friday. Many of the students and community members who showed up wanted to express their support for both prayer and free speech. 

"They said Robby was not in a free speech zone," said sophomore engineering major James Martzin. "This is America; all of it is a free speech zone."

Zach Connelly, a junior and history major, was out there to "support prayer on campus. ... Free speech all over campus is perfectly fine. Any religion deserves free speech."

Clemson administrators and media relations staff were on hand Friday to answer questions. Several students asked about the motivations behind the school's policies. Senior student affairs administrators Doug Hallenbeck and Mandy Hays said the university's rules about outside groups fall in line with decades of federal case law on the subject. They added that Roberts and others may register with student affairs like other groups do and have the same access as other campus ministries, and that Roberts is free to say whatever he likes on campus just like students, faculty and staff.

Those exchanges Friday were amicable. Freshman Matthew Phillips, one of the students who approached Hays and Hallenbeck, said initial online reporting alleging persecution based on religion wasn't accurate, but he and others are bothered by such free speech policies at Clemson and other universities across the nation. He told them the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit funded in part by the conservative Charles Koch Foundation, has litigated successfully against other universities with similar policies.

Phillips felt dialogue was the most important thing.

"The purpose of the rally was mostly for students and the community to talk about it," the political science major said. "I'm happy with the rally, even if only one person came. It's important. As a Christian, I'm glad to see it."

Roberts, for his part, was gratified by the support. He said he has spent the last two years in Clemson doing ministry, often spending weekend nights downtown outside the bars and offering a sympathetic ear to whoever might approach him. He believes God led him from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, to bring the church to Clemson University.

"I believe the church should be represented on this campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," said Roberts, a member of the Downtown Community Fellowship. "Clemson has to repent; Clemson has to change their policies."

Roberts can be reached through clemsonsoe.org.

Follow Mike Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM