On glistening pavement beneath an overcast sky, Ray Tarrer assumes his usual position in front of Parker Hall.
A retired chemical engineering professor and devout Christian, Tarrer spends his weekday mornings trying to spread the Christian gospel to Auburn students. Under his arm, he totes a simple bag carrying small folded pamphlets.
As students pass, he reaches out to them, pamphlet in hand. On each is a message written by Tarrer about his views on topics related to his faith.
“Want one?”
Every day, Tarrer passes out the 700 pamphlets he made that morning to students as they make their way across campus. Each day brings a new message.
Tarrer’s recent pamphlets gave messages on dealing with anxiety, his beliefs on the meaning of the separation of church and state and his views on American immigration.
Steven Brown, political science professor, said the rights of people like Tarrer to interact with students is protected because of the University’s status as a limited public forum, with a few caveats.
Tarrer was once involved with the Auburn University Christian Faculty Network, but he said faculty can’t talk about their faith with students. He believes his retirement puts him in a special position, allowing him to share his faith without fear of losing a job.
According to Brown, Auburn University can only place limitations on speech if it interferes with the educational mission of the institution or is calling for violent action.
“If you allow anybody from off campus to access students, you can’t single out a particular type of speech for its content,” Brown said. “It’s kind of an all or nothing type of thing.”
Auburn could decide they only wanted to allow administration and professors to be allowed to pass things out to students, and that would be constitutionally supported, Brown said.
He said Auburn can qualify someone’s speech as interfering with its educational mission if it hinders students’ ability to get to their classes, such as a large crowd surrounding a speaker in front of the Haley Center.
“I can say what I want to until they ban me from campus,” Tarrer said.
Tarrer said he was threatened by the Auburn Police Division last year after a female student accused him of harassment.
According to a police report from the APD, the offense occurred between 10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2017. The case was closed, and the victim didn’t press any further charges.
“I think they were just trying to scare me,” Tarrer said.
It’s your word versus their word, Tarrer said. Now, he wears a body camera on a lanyard around his neck on the advice of a police officer.
As students walked by, Tarrer reached out to offer a pamphlet to them. Some students accepted graciously while others declined his offer.
After one student declined his offer and continued walking, Tarrer said the student didn’t know anything about his message — he just says no out of principle.
Tarrer said this kind of interaction is not an uncommon one. Whenever he talks about his faith with someone, they want to stop the conversation.
According to Brown, the University doesn’t have the power to regulate content that students deem offensive. What one student considers offensive is entirely subjective, and the University doesn’t have the power to decide what material is and isn’t acceptable.
When Richard Spencer, a prominent white supremacist, visited Auburn’s campus in April 2017, he was met with a large group of protestors who believed his beliefs were hateful and offensive.
The administration initially tried to prevent Spencer from coming to campus. Spencer sued, and the judge agreed that Auburn University, as a limited public forum, did not have the power to prevent Spencer from speaking.
Being offended is in the eye of the beholder, Brown said.
According to Tarrer, he’s always been a Christian, but he hasn’t always been as outspoken as he is now.
“I went along with the system,” Tarrer said. “I didn’t say anything about Christ in class — no way.”
The more I witnessed people on campus, the more I wanted to, he said with a laugh.
Tarrer said he shares his faith because he believes it can affect someone not just for the rest of their life but for the rest of eternity.
“The idea of someone being tormented for eternity, wow,” Tarrer said.
As classes let out and students began to flood the concourse — the rainclouds above only teasing — Tarrer returned to his typical routine.
“Want one?”
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