UT-Austin faculty criticizes response to pro-Palestine walkout as students plan new protest
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Fallout from police crackdowns on a pro-Palestine protest at the University of Texas at Austin continued Thursday morning with faculty condemning the response, university leaders defending their actions and students planning a second round of protests.
All told, at least 57 people — including one journalist — were arrested on the school’s campus on Wednesday, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday. The arrests quickly sparked backlash from faculty and students, who called the reaction heavy-handed since the protest showed no signs of violence when it started.
Soon after the student walkout began, university officials and police ordered protesters to disperse. Authorities began to make arrests on criminal trespassing charges, a Class B misdemeanor. Protesters then regrouped on the university's South Mall and were soon surrounded by law enforcement — including Texas Department of Public Safety officers — who formed a perimeter behind a chain-link barrier and pushed protesters onto the sidewalks. A procession of mounted state troopers and officers on foot herded students farther using body shields and their horses, which at times came within grazing distance of protesters.
As footage from the protest went viral on social media — including a video of police slamming a local TV cameraman to the ground — some Republican leaders cheered the police response, accusing the demonstrators of being "pro-Hamas" or calling the protest an "unlawful assembly."
In a Wednesday evening statement, UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell defended the response, saying that the university “held firm” and said student protesters had “tried to deliver on their stated intent to occupy campus.”
“Peaceful protests within our rules are acceptable,” Hartzell said. “Breaking our rules and policies and disrupting others’ ability to learn are not allowed. The group that led this protest stated it was going to violate Institutional Rules. Our rules matter, and they will be enforced. Our University will not be occupied.”
Hartzell’s explanation was quickly decried by faculty groups as well as students.
In a Thursday morning statement that was also sent to Hartzell, the Faculty Council Executive Committee said it was “gravely alarmed” by the reaction to Wednesday’s protest and accused Hartzell of inviting state troopers — many of whom were involved in detaining and corralling protesters — onto campus.
“Across the generations, our University has been home to protests of every shape and size, and to a tradition of meeting those protests with understanding and nuance — not with police batons and body shields,” the faculty group wrote. “Needless to say, we don’t believe that President Hartzell’s message to the community Wednesday night comes close to providing a justification for the University's conduct. We have also urged him to use more restraint in the future — and to articulate, as clearly as possible, where he believes the line is between campus protests that can and should be addressed by campus and local law enforcement personnel and protests that warrant calling in armed state troopers.”
The Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors also blasted the university’s response and called for canceling regular school activities. Some UT-Austin students on campus Thursday said their professors told them classes on Thursday would be optional.
“Instead of allowing our students to go ahead with their peaceful planned action, our leaders turned our campus into a militarized zone,” the group said. “No business as usual tomorrow. No classes. No grading. No assignments.”
The faculty group told colleagues to gather Thursday at noon in front of the UT Tower, where the local Texas State Employees Union had initially planned to rally against recent laws and cuts targeting the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The union, however, said it would cede the space to pro-Palestinian protesters who are planning a second day of rallying.
The Palestine Solidarity Committee, which organized Wednesday’s event, vowed to continue protesting at the school beginning at 12:15 p.m. The group is calling for the university to divest from companies that are “profiting off of and facilitating the Israel-led, U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza,” among other things.
“We join our faculty’s call to continue to protest in the face of oppression! We call on our community to resist the draconian tactics of intimidation employed by our university and to reaffirm our demands tomorrow,” the group said.
Meanwhile, prominent Republican leaders have continued to call for a crackdown on the demonstrators and faculty who are supporting them.
"Fine. Don’t do the job UT hired you to do," Rep. Tom Oliverson, a Cypress Republican who is running for Speaker of the Texas House, wrote on social media in response to the Texas AAUP's calls to suspend school activities. "I fully support you all being fired. This is 'unprofessional conduct that adversely affects the university'."
Ikram Mohamed contributed to this story.
Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/25/ut-austin-palestine-protest-fallout/.
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