Students Protest University President David Caputo’s State of the University Address
Brian Kelly | Tuesday, March 14, 2006 | Pace University, New York City Campus
On Monday, March 13, a large group of students from the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN), and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were joined by university students, professors, original SDS’ers, and CAN members who faced repression at CCNY. They launched one of the largest protests Pace University’s campus had seen. The university, which is not accustomed to being challenged, let alone having to deal with large protests, was not prepared for the event.
The students gave the Real State of the University: infringement of civil liberties; union-busting of the adjunct professors’, cafeteria workers’, and transportation workers’ unions; and a university deficit of $3.2 million. All this is occurring while Pace is “celebrating” its 100th year anniversary of the university.
CAN and SDS gave a press conference on the steps of City Hall (NYC) in which they addressed campus repression at Pace of both students and workers. They talked about the battle the university was waging against them as a result of their protest at Bill Clinton’s address to Pace’s Pleasantville campus. Three top members of Pace University’s security office left the university and followed the students through the streets to City Hall and watched the press conference. The activists then marched across the street chanting a call and response of: “FREE SPEECH!, FREE SPEECH!”
As the protest began, one of the NYPD inspectors targeted the two students who heckled Clinton and pulled them aside. They were asked whether or not they intended to “burn down the building” or go inside. The students stated that they were offended that the inspector was asking them these questions and they returned to the protest. Surrounded on their south side by about a dozen police officers on motorcycles, and on the university side by several Pace Security officers, the protesters loudly demanded that the university hear their call to “Drop all Charges and Support Free Speech on Campus.”
The students held a speak-out with members from the Campus Antiwar Network and Students for a Democratic Society, where they cited their demands, and read out letters of support from Cindy Sheehan and other leading anti-war and free speech activists. These activists had written to President Caputo asking him to drop all charges against Brian Kelly and Lauren Giaccone. The group mixed in free speech, anti-war, democracy, and pro-union chants during the speak-out. Between the protestors and their audiences, over 80 people attended the protest by joining it, watching from the steps of the University, or offering statements of support.
The protestors then spoke out on a bullhorn for about 15 minutes before they were stopped by the New York Police Department. Police claimed it was a violation of city code to speak using amplified sound. The students agreed to put the bullhorn away in the interests of protecting all the supporters there, but only after they read the First Amendment of the United States and the ruling in the Supreme Court case Saia v. New York. The Court stated in the Saia case that amplified sounded was protected by the first amendment and is the way by which the people are reached.
Democracy Now! interviewed the activists afterwards about the day’s events. Amy Goodman covered the event during her daily broadcast on Tuesday (around minute 10 of her broadcast). (See transcript of report below.) Reporters from Democracy Now!, Channel 9, the Pace press and the Indypendent were present.
Police and campus security weren’t the only authorities present. A white Department of Homeland Security car drove by, pausing and then speeding away back onto the Brooklyn Bridge as activists attempted to photograph it. When a Pentagon database was released listing events the government had spied on, many Campus Antiwar Network rallies and counter-recruitment protests were on the list. The government is making it clear: if you are against the war or step out of what we define as acceptable free speech, We Are Watching you.
As the protest neared its end, several activists decided to enter the university and question President Caputo during a question and answer session. Not surprisingly they were met with resistance from campus security who said they would have them removed on “disorderly conduct charges” after one activist put a free speech sign up to the glass of the window where Caputo was speaking. After finally being let in, Caputo swiftly ended the question and answer session. As he was leaving he was confronted by students who inquired about the repression of free speech on campus and the threatened expulsion of the two CAN and SDS activists. Caputo agreed to meet with the group after spring break.
The battle is not over. Pace Students plan to continue their fight until students are allowed to fully express themselves freely, as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States, and until Pace University amends its unconstitutional polices that prohibits free speech and free assembly. They call on President Caputo to drop all charges against the student activists threatened with expulsion, and to amend Pace’s policies that prevent students from organising and workers from unionising.
Brian Kelly is the president of Pace University’s Campus Antiwar Network and a member of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Green Party. He is one of the activists currently being threatened with expulsion for his efforts to organise against the war and in support of unions on campus. You can reach him at Kelly@leftist.ws.
For more information please visit www.campusantiwar.net, www.traprockpeace.org/pace_repression, or www.newsds.org/pace
How you can help:
Sign our online petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/paceuniv/
Contact Pace University and Tell Them What You Think:
Pace University President’s Office:
David A. Caputo, President
212-346-1097
president@pace.edu and d.caputo@pace.edu
Pace University Dean for Student’s Office:
Dr. Marijo Russell O’Grady, Dean for Students
212-346-1306 or 212-346-1307
mrussellogrady@pace.edu
Pace University Hotline:
1-866-PAC-E001 (1-866-722-3001)
Democracy Now! report – March 14, 2006
Pace University Students Face Expulsion Over Protest
The Campus Antiwar Network is calling on supporters to phone New York’s Pace University today in order to request charges be dropped against two student activists. The students, Brian Kelly and Lauren Giaccone, say the university is threatening to expel them for distributing flyers and for protesting without a permit. The charges were filed after the two students called Bill Clinton a “war criminal” during his speech at the school last week. After being removed from the speech, the students said they were detained, searched and questioned by law enforcement and Secret Service agents.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/13/1429225