Sandhills Community College

Sandhills Community College has a permission requirement for demonstrations that contains nothing but official discretion — no designated area, no deadline, no criteria, no appeal. That is the defect the Fourth Circuit condemns. It is also not a license to skip the request.

Three things to carry away before the detail:

1. The strongest ground requires no permission at all. The public sidewalk along Airport Road is a traditional public forum. Campus policy governs College property; it does not govern the public right-of-way. Know where that line is, to the foot.
2. The single highest-leverage step is finding a campus sponsor. Under binding Fourth Circuit law, a recognized student organization enjoys materially broader access than an unaffiliated outsider. SCC already has an active Christian club — the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. That is the fastest route to standing.
3. Comply on the ground, litigate on paper. The gap in SCC’s policy is leverage if you are denied or ignored — not a self-help remedy. Defying an unwritten rule produces a trespass citation, not a court ruling.

Campus hours

Per the 2026–2027 Catalog:

“The college is closed during holidays and times not listed above, except for special events.”

Jurisdictional caution

SCC’s own materials describe the campus as sitting on the boundary between Pinehurst and Southern Pines. Which municipality’s noise and solicitation ordinances apply to a given spot on campus is unresolved and must be verified on the ground through Moore County GIS or the Village of Pinehurst Planning Department (Village Hall, 395 Magnolia Road). Municipal ordinances apply concurrently with campus policy where the parcel lies inside town limits. The Southern Pines noise ordinance and Pinehurst’s decibel-based Chapter 92 are both potentially in play.

Every SCC policy quoted below was retrieved and verified directly from sandhills.edu/policy on August 23, 2026.

Policy 2.10 — Demonstrations

Board of Trustees approval August 6, 2007; revised October 1, 2012. Read the policy.

Sandhills Community College is committed to supporting freedom of speech and recognizes that free speech is the best means for arriving at truth and mutual understanding. The College also recognizes that the rights to assemble peaceably and to petition the government for redress of grievances are important components of free speech. Therefore, the College will protect the rights of free speech, petition, and peaceable assembly as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. However, it is also the responsibility of the College to provide a suitable campus environment for students, faculty, and staff to engage in their College duties and activities without undue interference or disturbance. The College will establish regulations to set forth reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions concerning acts of expression and dissent.

This is an affirmative written commitment by the College to protect free speech, petition, and peaceable assembly as guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Print it and carry it. Note the final sentence: it is promissory — the College will establish regulations. What follows is the only thing it ever published.

Procedure 2.10.1 — Governing Principles Relating to Demonstrations

Revised October 1, 2012; October 30, 2020. Read the procedure.

To request permission to use a designated area, parties other than currently enrolled students must contact the Administrative Assistant for the Chief Operating Officer; currently enrolled students must contact Vice President of Student Services. The Administrative Assistant for the Chief Operating Officer and the Vice President of Student Services will confer with the Chief of Campus Police and the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs & Institutional Planning to determine an appropriate area and other parameters for the requested activity. The Chief of Campus Police will inform the petitioning person or group of the college’s response and will work with the person or group on the details of the event. It is the expectation of the College that persons or groups entrusted to use the designated area do not destruct or deface College property. Additionally, it is the expectation of the College that persons or groups refrain from behavior or language that may incite violence.

This is the entire published procedure, and it is the only SCC rule that binds a non-student. What it omits:

• No designated area. The phrase “a designated area” presupposes a designation that appears nowhere in the policy manual, the catalog, or any published SCC document.
• No advance-notice period. Nothing states how far ahead a request must be submitted.
• No decision deadline. Officials may take as long as they wish.
• No criteria. Four officials confer and “determine an appropriate area and other parameters” against no published standard.
• No written reasons. No appeal.

Note the final clause. “Behavior or language that may incite violence” is broader than the constitutional standard, which requires speech directed to and likely to produce imminent lawless action — Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). As written, the clause invites a heckler’s veto, which the Supreme Court rejected in Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123 (1992). Give no one a factual basis to invoke it.

Policy 2.11 — Solicitation on Campus

Board approval August 6, 2007; revised October 1, 2012. Read the policy.

Sandhills Community College is a solicitation-free zone with the exception of United Way and the Sandhills Community College Foundation, Inc. Campus e-mail, voice mail, mailboxes, or campus-wide memoranda will not be used to solicit contributions to any causes, be they personal or charitable. Exceptions may be approved by the President on a case-by-case basis.

This policy does not reach free literature. Every operative clause concerns soliciting contributions of money through internal College channels — email, voicemail, mailboxes, campus-wide memoranda. Handing a person a free gospel tract solicits nothing and uses no College channel.

The controlling distinction: on the same day in 1992 the Supreme Court upheld a ban on soliciting funds in airport terminals and struck down a ban on distributing literature in the identical space — ISKCON v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672 (1992); Lee v. ISKCON, 505 U.S. 830 (1992). Money and leaflets are constitutionally distinct. Stay firmly on the leaflet side of that line.

Policy 2.9 and Procedure 2.9.1 — Use of College Facilities and Grounds

Both revised October 1, 2014. Policy 2.9 · Procedure 2.9.1.

Procedure 2.9.1 reaches grounds, meaning outdoor space:

Permission may be granted for the use of College facilities and grounds by non-profit groups and organizations when the requested use is for meetings and activities of an educational, cultural, or service nature and when space is available.

Two problems. First, SCC now has two overlapping procedures that could each govern an outdoor request — Procedure 2.10.1 (through the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer) and Procedure 2.9.1 (Application for Facility Usage, signed by the COO) — with different offices, different forms, and different standards, and nothing telling a citizen which applies. Ask which one governs, in writing.

Second, 2.9.1’s criterion is use “of an educational, cultural, or service nature.” If SCC ever denies a religious group on the ground that religious speech is not educational, cultural, or service in nature, that is textbook viewpoint discrimination — Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches UFSD, 508 U.S. 384 (1993); Good News Club v. Milford Central School, 533 U.S. 98 (2001).

The student conduct codes — and why they do not bind you

SCC publishes two different student conduct codes simultaneously, and they do not match. Neither binds a non-student. Both apply by their own terms to “all students enrolled in courses with Sandhills Community College.” Every sanction available — reprimand, probation, suspension, expulsion — is a student sanction. For an unaffiliated citizen, Procedure 2.10.1 is the only SCC rule that reaches you.

Policy 10.13 — Campus Security

Adopted December 2, 2025. Read the policy. Clery Act compliance only (20 U.S.C. § 1092(f); 34 C.F.R. § 668.46). It contains no trespass, banning, or removal procedure. Nothing anywhere in SCC’s published policy manual establishes standards for issuing, appealing, or lifting a no-trespass order.

Reduced to its essentials, SCC’s scheme for an unaffiliated citizen is: ask four officials for permission. They will decide where you may stand and what else you must do. There are no criteria, no deadline, and no appeal.

That is a licensing regime consisting of nothing but discretion, and it is the precise defect the Supreme Court identified in City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer, 486 U.S. 750 (1988) and Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123 (1992). A standardless licensing scheme may be challenged facially, without ever applying.

The Fourth Circuit applied that principle to a religious literature distributor in Child Evangelism Fellowship of Md. v. Montgomery County Public Schools, 457 F.3d 376 (4th Cir. 2006) — binding in North Carolina:

[E]ven in cases involving nonpublic or limited public forums, a policy … that permits officials to deny access for any reason, or that does not provide sufficient criteria to prevent viewpoint discrimination, generally will not survive constitutional scrutiny.

Applied to SCC: Procedure 2.10.1 provides no criteria whatsoever. Four officials confer and decide. That is precisely what this case condemns.

The strongest ground available to you requires no permission at all. The public road right-of-way along Airport Road is a traditional public forum — the most protected category of government property under the First Amendment.

What SCC claims

From the current Catalog, under “Campus Law Enforcement Authority”:

Sandhills Community College retains its own police department. Campus police officers have full police powers on Sandhills Community College property and all public property immediately adjacent to the college property.

What the statute says

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-21.1(a):

The territorial jurisdiction of a campus police officer shall include all property owned or leased to the community college employing the officer and that portion of any public road or highway passing through the property and immediately adjoining it, wherever located.

The statute is narrower than the Catalog’s claim. It reaches College property plus public roads and highways passing through or immediately adjoining it — not “all public property immediately adjacent.” An adjacent public park, greenway, or non-road public parcel falls outside the statutory grant unless a joint agreement exists.

The strategic consequence

Airport Road and its public sidewalk almost certainly fall within the statutory grant, so stepping off campus onto the sidewalk does not escape campus police jurisdiction. But jurisdiction to enforce criminal law is not authority to enforce campus policy. A public street and its adjoining sidewalk are a traditional public forum — Perry Education Ass’n v. Perry Local Educators’ Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37 (1983); Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443 (2011). Procedure 2.10.1 governs College property. It does not govern the public right-of-way.

SCC’s outdoor pedestrian areas are most likely a limited public forum. For non-student outsiders, the external standard governs: restrictions must be viewpoint-neutral and reasonable in light of the forum’s purposes. Interior spaces and parking lots are nonpublic forums where expressive activity may be broadly restricted. The public right-of-way along Airport Road is a traditional public forum where your rights are at their maximum. The full framework is set out in section 02 of the companion article.

Is quiet tract distribution even a “demonstration”?

Procedure 2.10.1 is titled Demonstrations. Whether two people silently holding a sign and offering literature constitutes a demonstration is genuinely unsettled. Watchtower and Berger suggest permit schemes cannot reach lone or paired leafleters. Mote went the other way for campus outsiders and is binding here. Preserve the argument; do not stake your access on it.

This is the highest-leverage variable in the entire plan. Under binding Fourth Circuit law, a recognized student organization enjoys materially broader campus access than an unaffiliated outsider. Securing a campus sponsor is not merely a matter of fellowship — it changes the legal analysis more than any other single step available.

In ACLU Student Chapter–University of Maryland v. Mote, 423 F.3d 438 (4th Cir. 2005), the Fourth Circuit upheld a policy that confined unsponsored outsiders to designated areas while granting sponsored individuals far broader access. The court’s reasoning was explicit: outsiders need only find a sponsor within the campus community, and once sponsored, they obtain the same access to facilities as their sponsor enjoys.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes — ACTIVE

The most valuable single finding: SCC currently recognizes an active Christian student organization. FCA holds weekly Bible studies and appears on the College’s current clubs roster. It is the most immediately available on-campus sponsor.

Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) — DORMANT

Recognized in the 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 catalogs with advisor listed as “TBA.” Not present on the current clubs roster. Appears dormant. A Cru campus locator page exists at campus.cru.org/college/sandhills, and a “Sandhills Community College Cru” Facebook page exists with a small following; content on both appears to date to 2023–2024.

Reviving Cru at SCC is realistic and carries the advantage of documented prior recognition by the College.

Students for Life — ACTIVE (adjacent)

Advisor: Ginny Ferguson, 114 Steed Hall, 910-695-3882, [email protected]. Not a Christian ministry as such, but a pro-life advocacy organization whose membership frequently overlaps with Christian students. Worth knowing as a potential ally.

Student Life office contacts

The pathway is straightforward and documented on the College’s “Starting a Club” page.

Requirements

1. A minimum of four student members
2. A full-time faculty or staff advisor
3. Three completed forms — Club Registration Form, Club Constitution Form, and Advisor Agreement Form — submitted through the College’s electronic forms portal
4. Presentation of the club’s mission to the Student Government Association Executive Board at the next SGA General Meeting, which votes to sanction the club

Recognition requires SGA approval and Dean of Student Services approval under SCC Policy 4.8. Only recognized organizations may use College facilities — which is precisely why recognition matters. The current SGA Club Handbook is posted on the College’s clubs page.

Apart from FCA, no national campus ministry maintains a staffed presence at Sandhills Community College or at any community college in the immediate region. Strong regional partners exist even though none sits on the SCC campus.

Baptist State Convention of North Carolina — Collegiate Partnerships

The most promising institutional partner for a community college. The BSCNC Collegiate Partnerships team explicitly focuses on planting collegiate ministries at community colleges. A Convention report noted that since 2018 the team has assisted churches and associations in starting ministries on twelve campuses, eleven of which were community colleges.

Ratio Christi

Focused on apologetics and campus intellectual engagement; actively plants new chapters. National office: [email protected] · 704-989-2752 · 2150 Elmwood Avenue, Suite 2, Lafayette, IN 47904. Chapter-formation information at ratiochristi.org/join. NC chapters exist at Wingate, UNC-Charlotte, ECU, Western Carolina, UNC-Wilmington, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, and Appalachian State.

Sandhills Baptist Association

Covers Moore County and portions of Harnett, Hoke, and Lee counties. Approximately thirty-two to thirty-three member churches. 910-947-2238 · [email protected] · sandhillsbaptist.org. The Association Mission Strategist arrived in 2022. Associations frequently coordinate campus outreach across member churches — this is a key first call.

Churches with college or young-adult ministry

Gideons International — Moore County Camp

The Moore County Camp of the Gideons is confirmed to exist; a listing appears at 7540 US Highway 15-501 North, Pinehurst, NC 28374. The Gideons have a long history of Scripture distribution at and near college campuses and are a natural ally for materials. Direct camp telephone contact could not be verified online; reach the local camp through gideons.org.

Stage 1 — Before going

1. Verify the right-of-way boundary along Airport Road through Moore County GIS or NCDOT plans. Know precisely where College property ends.
2. Verify the municipal jurisdiction of your intended spot (Village of Pinehurst, Town of Southern Pines, or unincorporated Moore County), then read that jurisdiction’s noise ordinance. Pinehurst’s limit is 75 dB during daytime hours with a 10:00 p.m. curfew. Use no amplification regardless.
3. Submit a written request under Procedure 2.10.1 to the Administrative Assistant for the Chief Operating Officer for any activity on campus grounds. Call 910-692-6185 for the name and direct email address; do not guess. Keep proof of transmission.
4. In the same message, ask in writing for: the designated area or areas and their hours; how far in advance a request must be submitted; the timeframe for a decision; the criteria used; whether written reasons and an appeal are available; and which procedure applies — 2.10.1 or 2.9.1.
5. Print and carry: Policy 2.10, Procedure 2.10.1, and any written response you receive.

Stage 2 — On site

6. Silent sign-holding and offered — not pressed — literature. Outdoors only. No amplification.
7. Take no money. No collection, no donation jar, no QR code to give, no sales, and nothing on the tract soliciting funds. The moment money enters, Policy 2.11 applies by its plain terms and your strongest argument evaporates.
8. Never obstruct entrances, doorways, walkways, or driveways. Never enter buildings to distribute.
9. Do not follow or re-engage anyone who declines. Leave the area clean.
10. Observe campus hours. Outside those hours, remain on the public right-of-way.
11. Be scrupulously civil to staff and officers.
12. Think hard before using graphic imagery — it is the single most likely trigger for an escalation. The full analysis is in section 08 of the companion article.
13. Designate one person to speak with any official.

Stage 3 — If approached

14. Ask calmly: “What policy or law am I violating, and can you show it to me in writing?” Get the officer’s name and badge number.
15. Record the interaction from a lawful vantage point. North Carolina is a one-party consent state; recording police in public is lawful. Note date, time, exact location, and witnesses.
16. If ordered to leave, leave — stating that you believe the activity is protected and that you are departing under protest. Do not physically resist. Refusing supplies probable cause for arrest under § 14-159.13, and later dismissal of the charge will not make the arrest unlawful.
17. If handed a no-trespass letter: keep it, note any appeal deadline, appeal in writing immediately, and do not return until it is lifted. SCC has no published standard governing issuance or rescission — that absence is a central argument.

Stage 4 — Legal backup

18. Organizations that handle campus religious-speech matters: Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel, First Liberty Institute, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), The Rutherford Institute, American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. Bring them the policies, any denial or non-response, and your documentation.
19. Frame any claim as viewpoint discrimination and unbridled discretion — not prior restraint, and not due process. Both of those theories were dismissed in Dames.

Submit under the North Carolina Public Records Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq. Suggested text:

Pursuant to the North Carolina Public Records Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq., I request copies of the following records:

1. Any and all regulations adopted pursuant to the final sentence of Board Policy 2.10, which states that “The College will establish regulations to set forth reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions concerning acts of expression and dissent.” If no such regulations exist beyond Procedure 2.10.1, please state that in writing.
2. Any document identifying the “designated area” or areas referenced in Procedure 2.10.1, including any map, list, diagram, or written designation.
3. Any criteria, checklist, rubric, or written guidance used to decide requests submitted under Procedure 2.10.1, together with any record of requests received and their disposition during the past five years.
4. The Application for Facility Usage form referenced in Procedure 2.9.1, and any written criteria used to evaluate such applications.
5. Any Campus Police general orders, directives, or standard operating procedures concerning demonstrations, solicitation, distribution of literature, trespass, or the issuance of no-trespass orders.
6. Any joint agreement entered under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-21.1(b) or (c) with the Village of Pinehurst, the Town of Southern Pines, or Moore County extending campus police authority.
7. Any survey, plat, or GIS record showing the boundary between College property and the public road right-of-way along Airport Road.
8. All no-trespass or campus banning letters issued during the past five years, with identifying information redacted as permitted by law.
9. Any records of citations or arrests connected to speech, leafleting, protest, or demonstration on College property.
10. A statement of which document controls where Board Policy 4.4.1 and the Catalog’s Student Conduct provisions conflict, including the Sunday campus-hours discrepancy (7:00 a.m. in Policy 4.4.1 versus 8:00 a.m. in the current Catalog).

Please advise of any fees before incurring them. If any portion of this request is denied, please cite the specific statutory exemption relied upon.

Items 1, 2, 6, and 7 are the priorities. Item 1 tests whether the promised regulations exist at all. Item 2 tests whether the designated area exists. Items 6 and 7 determine exactly where the right-of-way strategy is available. A written “no responsive records” answer to Item 1 would confirm that SCC never promulgated the regulations its own policy promised — a fact of considerable legal significance.