When I first read the campus announcement for the new areas for free expression on campus in early January 2026, I was a bit perplexed at the idea of “QR code” and a “pilot experiment.” As I was snow shoeing in the Blues, my mind kept thinking about this announcement. I wondered silently in amazement. Are we digitizing free expression? Are we trying to control protests through a QR code? Is this a senior thesis project measuring free expression? Were these new areas supposed to be the Uber Eats/Door Dash for free expression on campus? Would this QR code offer me a “free expression menu” and deliver it at my doorstep? If I go into the QR code, would all power structures dissolve? What did this announcement mean?

And then I read Holly VanVoorhis’ brilliant article, “Task Force Pilots Free Expression Area,” in the Whitman Wire on February 13, 2026, and I was even more perplexed by the idea of “data-driven response” and the movement of the “epicenter of campus”. If spaces of free expression respond to “power”, did I miss a memo that the center of power at Whitman College had moved somewhere to the periphery or was power still confined to Memorial Hall? I’m confident Memorial Hall still holds the power to decide our academic and everyday lives. So, what does the movement of the “epicenter of campus” really mean? Does this mean that the holders of power on campus want free expression to be out of sight and out of mind? Is this the new politics of aesthetics at Whitman College? Or does this fenced off area offer another extra-curricular activity opportunity for our students to add to their CVs in the hope of securing a data driven/digital technology career?

Now, as a typical academic, I am always searching for meaning of phrases and terms. My curiosity drove me to Google the term “data-driven response.” Low and behold, Gemini gave me the most generic answer, “A data-driven response is a decision-making or action-taking process based on the analysis of concrete data and facts rather than intuition, observation alone, or emotion.” So, based on this AI generated statement, free expression is not supposed to be based on “emotions” or “observations alone” or “intuition”. As I remember correctly, we are still a liberal college that teaches students to engage with challenging themes, to critically think through their emotions and to be humans guided by values of justice and equality to achieve freedom for all.

This quick Googling did not satisfy my quest for meaning making. I then wondered if protests are a form of free expression, then did the college administration use the term “data-driven response” to mean “data-driven protests”. Again, Gemini gave me a generic response, “’Data-driven protests’ refer to a growing wave of activism where citizens, communities, and activists leverage data, technical knowledge and digital tools to fuel their campaigns, often in response to the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure and AI.” I just want to tell Gemini that data-driven protests were a thing much before the idea of digital infrastructures or data centers became a part of our everyday imaginaries and material lives. Communities have used digital technologies and data to organize around various inequalities and injustices that cripple our societies. In modern times, if it was not for digital technologies, many societies would not be able to bring down dictators and tyrants. As I delved into the rabbit hole of meaning making, I continued to wonder in amazement at our changing understanding of free expression and protests. Are protests and free expressions supposed to be an act of spontaneity in solidarity with those impacted by the many injustices and inequalities that surround us? Or under our neoliberal logics of governance, is it supposed to be driven by an analysis of data and less guided by spontaneous acts of care? What does this data-driven response to free expression and protests do in times of authoritarianism and fascism? Does this intensify surveillance and control of what speech gets fenced off to the college periphery and what gets to make its way to the centers of power?

The idea of “data-driven response” or “data-driven protests” is not apolitical or value-neutral in any shape or form. Neither are these piloted experiments apolitical, something that can be extrapolated from a laboratory onto the streets. As we continue with our piloted expression for free expression areas on campus, I need to remind everyone involved in the process that data carries hierarchies of power that excludes certain groups from expressing themselves politically in response to acts of injustice. We are not here to shrink our political spaces of action and expression, but to participate in uncomfortable and challenging discourses on power and privilege without having to resort to fenced off areas on campus. In this pivotal political moment and as a liberal arts college, we need to critically think, reflect and introspect on what we mean as a “data-driven response,” particularly when it comes to our ideas of shaping democratic spaces and political action. We cannot enclose free speech to “official designated spaces” based on data-driven experiments. Protests are acts of care and solidarity where we show up for our community to dismantle structures of power in order to build a better world.