AUSTIN, Texas — In the aftermath of a momentous demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin, during which numerous pro-Palestinian activists were detained by state troopers, protesters reconvened on campus for a second day, this time with faculty members joining and amplifying the students’ demands from the previous day.
Faculty with the American Association of University Professors were seen passing around a petition asking for support in their plan to hold a vote of no-confidence in UT President Jay Hartzell.
The plan for a vote of no confidence was triggered by Hartzell’s management of the previous day’s protest and the school’s decision to ban diversity programs.
“The same president who called the cops on our students is the same president who fired 60 staff,” Karma Chávez, a UT professor, said.
Student protesters have been demanding UT-Austin to divest from all weapon manufacturers and companies involved with Israel and for Hartzell to resign as president.
UT has a history of student activism, which has many confused at the response. The response from law enforcement to Wednesday’s protest wasn’t a first. UT Historian Jim Nicar says the 1969 Battle of Waller Creek had a similar outcome.
“On the days they were going to take out the trees, students climbed them, they occupied the forest in some sense,” said Nicar. “Then Frank Erwin came along without consulting the university president first, just called in the Austin police and the state police and had the students bodily removed.”
Following the protest on Wednesday, Hartzell released a statement saying, “the protesters tried to deliver on their stated intent to occupy campus. People not affiliated with UT joined them, and many ignored University officials’ continual pleas for restraint and to immediately disperse. The University did as we said we would do in the face of prohibited actions. We were prepared, with the necessary support to maintain campus operations and ensure the safety, well-being and learning environment for our more than 50,000 students.”
“When law enforcement uses a heavy hand to go after speech, it often backfires. And often draws out more people who are angry about the response which undermines the purported law enforcement purpose in the first place,” Adam Steinbaugh with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said.
Students and alumni feel Gov. Greg Abbott violated the state’s 2019 free speech law.
“It’s clear the Gov. Abbott is going to be aggressive in taking action and it’s clear that if anything like that happens again the same situation will happen again,” said John Reetz a UT Alum.
A DEI Solidarity march was rescheduled for Monday and students plan to show out in large numbers again.
Sharon Wood, UT Provost, sent out new protest rules and planned to distribute the new rules throughout the protest Thursday.
The new rules include: individuals may not coerce attention by following students walking away from the protest, come to campus without authorization including instances where a person is subject to a criminal trespass warning or arrested for criminal trespass and refuse to comply with directions given by university officials or law enforcement.