As a student, I am always pleased to see other members of the community (or from farther reaches of the world) visiting the Grounds to tour the beauty of the University. However, I do not appreciate any such visitors who make themselves a distraction to the community of learning on Grounds. Some people have determined that the University is an easy pulpit from which to preach — and I do mean that literally — because we are so open to visitors. This behavior is unacceptable. We as students have the right to attend class without abatement or chastisement. Walking through Grounds while a man proselytizes loudly in our faces, or to have classes around the amphitheater interrupted by the shouts of this man are things that cannot be tolerated by this University. Such people turn our University into a spectacle. Now that we are in admissions season, we should concern ourselves with how the University will be perceived by prospective students and parents. Do we want Mr. Jefferson’s University to be seen as a playground for zealotry? Can we imagine if, instead of selling religious dogma, this man was selling landshares from the center of our amphitheater? The authorities of this University are beholden not only to the students’ rights from religious harassment, but also to the preservation of the Jeffersonian ideals upon which this University was founded. We must remove these offending persons from Grounds immediately, and inform them that, while our University endorses the free practice of religion, that endorsement extends to all the students that have to listen to them. To permit these religious histrionics to continue is tantamount to condoning them. And I could not imagine a more egregious misappropriation of Jefferson’s vision.
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