Residential Education (ResEd) sent an email to Resident Fellows (RFs) and residential leaders updating its flag and banner policy Thursday, reversing a previous rule against students hanging banners outside their windows.

The updated section of Stanford’s “Free Expression” website on posters, banners and chalking now states that “residents may place banners, flags, or signage on the inside or outside of window(s) and/or on or over balcony railings of their assigned room or unit provided all occupants of the assigned room or unit concur.”

“Since the fall, ResEd and R&DE have received feedback that the different rules for items displayed on the interior and exterior windows of student residences were confusing in light of Stanford’s freedom of expression values,” Vice Provost for Student Affairs Michele Rasmussem wrote in an email to The Daily.

The University’s attempts to navigate free speech debates, which include tightened speech guidelines and a policy of institutional neutrality that led to the removal of a “K(no)w Justice, K(no)w Peace” banner from the front of Green Library, have sparked community discourse.

In a September update to its free speech policies, the University prohibited students from hanging flags and banners from windows or railings, unless they were consistent with the dorm’s theme.

“It was noted that if one could just as easily see a sign or other item hung on the inside of a window as on the outside, why was the latter prohibited and not the former?” Rasmussem wrote.

Professor Bernie Meyler, special adviser to the provost on university speech, worked with administrators to make the decision. She also worked with representatives from the ASSU prior to the announcement of the change.

However, even after the September ban, students hung flags from windows for several months. 

“If you walk around campus, there’s already flags of different countries up on people’s rooms,” Zuha Hassen ’28 said of the policy change. “They might as well. It’s a freedom of speech.”