Members of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Faculty Senate met with school leaders to discuss what they perceive as a concerning change to campus free speech policies.
The new rules being proposed are known as “time, place and manner” policies. The changes would impose various restrictions, like limiting chalking and banning sit-ins at Bachman Hall — a historic site for student protests, from the Hawaiian Renaissance to activism against the 30-meter telescope on Maunakea.
HPR spoke with UH journalism student Zane Castillo and political science professor Dean Saranillio to learn more about the student and faculty response to the proposal.
“It renders protests by students and faculty at University of Hawaiʻi inconsequential,” Saranillio said about the TPM policy. “It doesn't allow for Indigenous peoples, minority folks, anyone concerned to have a voice to speak to the administration.”
The timing of the changes have also prompted concern, with some questioning whether the new policies were proposed out of concern for future federal funding.
“A lot of it has to do with the pressure from the Trump administration,” Castillo said. “As the US enters another war in the Middle East that is widely unpopular, we see more efforts to preemptively restrict our voices, so that way we can't disagree with the narrative from the federal government.”
Castillo was one of several authors behind a recently published article in the Mānoa Mirror, an online publication for student journalists at UH Mānoa, that outlined the concerns over the TPM policy.
“The biggest fear I've heard from everyone that I've interviewed is that this is a restriction that limits how people can speak, where they can speak, and they feel like, as an educational institution, that this is an overreach,” he told HPR.
According to Saranillio, the UH Faculty Senate passed a resolution last week to delay the administration from adopting any new rules until the fall to allow for more time to consider student and faculty concerns.
Administration officials say that May 20th is the deadline for reviewing the new restrictions.
This story aired on The Conversation on May 20, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
