{"id":142079,"date":"2026-02-03T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142079\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T16:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T16:15:08","slug":"students-for-a-democratic-society-protests-usf-calling-for-reversal-of-campus-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142079\/","title":{"rendered":"Students for a Democratic Society protests USF, calling for reversal of campus ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"usf
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudents for a Democratic Society protests USF over free speech. Photo by Leah Burdick.<\/p>\n

Emotions were high as 13 demonstrators gathered across from USF\u2019s Palm Drive, protesting the University of South Florida over free speech. Demonstrators were calling for the university to allow Students for a Democratic Society back on campus and reverse the expulsion of Victoria Hinckley.<\/a><\/p>\n

Demonstrators held signs about defending free speech on campus and chanted that protesting is not a crime.<\/p>\n

Allie Enriquez is a SDS member and said USF accused the group of being a threat to campus after the Spring 2024 encampments.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that USF exposed our group following the encampments and then following the banishment, basically anytime that SDS tried to be on campus, USF was quick to jump on members and hand out conduct charges,\u201d Enriquez said. \u201cThey said even if you came underneath a different name we all know who you guys are. So not even being able to organize underneath a different name was possible. Since then we\u2019ve been fighting to be back on campus to be able to express our First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enriquez said administrators told the group they could have their encampment in the campus free speech zone at MLK Jr. Plaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurthermore, violating our right to free speech by telling us that we couldn\u2019t even have free speech in the free speech zone,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Demonstrator Briana Beebe is a SDS member. She said the university selectively enforces its free speech policies. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t flyer. We were not allowed to table, but to have like a catholic women, thats not affiliated with USF, kind of harassing students in some ways verbally then to just be protected by USF. But we\u2019re fighting for student rights, we\u2019re out here on the ground trying so hard to advocate for quality and safety, and it\u2019s just clear that it\u2019s not their priority,\u201d Beebe said. \u201cSo we are out here to stand against that and hope that we can make a difference because it would be great to be at a school where it feels a little bit safer and more accepting,\u201d Beebe said.<\/p>\n

Beebe said the school expelled Hinckley because she was seen as a threat. She said Hinckley is very involved with SDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was specifically targeted for her involvement int he encampments and her organizing of it. I mean that was a student movement that was encompassing all of America,\u201d Beebe said. <\/p>\n

She also said another student, who was on a student visa, was suspended after the encampment and is in Colombia, unable to return to campus.<\/p>\n

As protesters chanted, members handed out flyers and some students stopped to listen.<\/p>\n

SDS sued USF<\/a> in 2025 saying the university violated the Campus Free Expression Act and the First Amendment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students for a Democratic Society protests USF over free speech. Photo by Leah Burdick. Emotions were high as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[30275,113,11113,1062,30415,3138,27195,135,137,136,3650,1537],"class_list":["post-142079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-civil-rights","tag-education","tag-free-speech","tag-human-rights","tag-news-and-public-affairs","tag-protest","tag-students-for-a-democratic-society","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-university-of-south-florida","tag-usf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}