Dear Colleagues:

Like many of you, we are gravely alarmed by yesterday’s events on our campus–including President Hartzell’s decision to invite DPS officers, armed and in riot gear, onto the Forty Acres to disrupt a non-violent protest. 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.

We are writing to you this morning for three reasons. First, we want to let you know that we have already been in touch with President Hartzell and other members of the University administration–and have expressed to them our serious concerns with the University’s decision to escalate matters by inviting DPS onto campus during yesterday’s protests. Among other things, we have asked President Hartzell to lay out his specific reasoning for making that decision–along with why, if it was in response to a perceived threat to public safety, that threat was not communicated to any students, staff, or faculty. 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.

Second, we also want to express our support, in the strongest possible terms, for peaceful, non-disruptive protests on our campus. Whether or not yesterday’s activities were protected by the First Amendment, universities like ours ought to be safe spaces for all manner of speech–so long as they don’t cross the line into hate speech, harassment, or threats. After all, if we cannot model how to be tolerant of viewpoints with which some (or even many) of us disagree, how can we expect our students or the public writ large to do so?

Finally, we want to reaffirm our bonds as a community. These are difficult times for all of us–not just because of the ever-more-tragic events in Israel and Gaza, but also closer to home. Indeed, as troubling as the pictures and videos of yesterday’s DPS activities were, we were (and continue to be) heartened by the overwhelming concern expressed for our community from all parts of campus, as well as nationally and internationally, even among those less sympathetic to the protesters’ cause. We hope that, in the long run, the University will look back on its behavior yesterday as an overreaction–and we hope that you will work with us to send that message to President Hartzell, Provost Wood, and others both within the University administration and beyond.

Sincerely yours,

Charlotte Canning, Secretary of the General Faculty and Faculty Council; Professor, Theatre and Dance

Stella Flores, Chair-Elect, Faculty Council; Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy

Megan Hildebrandt, Faculty Council Executive Committee Representative; Associate Professor of Practice, Art and Art History

Jen Moon, Chair, Faculty Council and Professor of Instruction, Biology Instruction Offic

Domino Perez, Past Chair, Faculty Council; Professor, English

Sarah Sloan, Faculty Council Executive Committee Representative; Clinical Associate Professor, School of Social Work

Jessica Toste, Chair, Graduate Assembly; Associate Professor, Special Education

Steve Vladeck, Faculty Council Executive Committee Representative; Professor, School of Law