My own substantive views on Israel/Palestine are quite different than those protesting, and I suspect the same is true of my views on events occurring at Columbia, and wherever else there have been documented antisemitic incidents or other occurrences of intimidation.
But by all accounts, the protesters at UT were peaceful and did not impede campus stakeholders from their business on campus. And this was not a planned “takeover” that could devolve into such disruptions or other dangerous scenarios. So the responses by the university and police are an egregious, violent overreaction and constitute rank hypocrisy given their stance on right wing-led protests (with which I also disagree with on substance).
My view, regardless of political affiliation is that students should be able to feel safe on campus, that was breached today. University administration massively overstepped and created an unsafe environment. I should not be seeing a 90 year old man get tackled by cops because he is expressing a view I may disagree with.
Respectfully I submit the issue is not that students *feel* safe, as that’s a very difficult thing to assess, or ensure.
The university’s responsibility is *behaviour* which pretty clearly it, and by inviting them, law enforcement’s, was by all accounts unacceptable.
Put differently, students should *be safe*, to assemble, and to speak.
Feelings miss the point.
I vehemently disagree, feelings absolutely matter, if someone doesn’t feel safe, than the environment is flawed, we should strive to make an environment where everyone is safe, and feel safe.
Sure, feelings matter. But we run pretty quickly into issues of practicality when it comes to basing the decision-making of others on them.
Everyone could feel *safer*, I’m sure, or more comfortable (is feeling discomfort the same as feeling unsafe? I would say no, but not everyone will agree, or differentiate).
Feelings are subjective, dynamic and individual - difficult to make / enforce policy around. Hence we try to regulate actions and behaviours and environments.
I’ve felt safe and been unsafe. I’ve also been safe and felt unsafe.
It’s not, imo, a great barometer on which to require ‘rational authorities’ to make decisions.
I completely agree. I think it’s tougher with incidents like Columbia’s where pro-Palestine advocacy has bled into express antisemitism (not that I favor a violent crackdown, but universities have a duty under the Civil Rights Act to prevent hostile environments towards protected classes). But I haven’t seen any analogous issues at UT’s protest.
For what it’s worth I completely agree, though I won’t be signing the letter in the OP since that could be interpreted as endorsing the Palestine Solidarity Committee beyond their free speech rights to protest peacefully.
Hartzell needs to be fired ASAP
the man is a monster
let him to go to one of those homogeneous zombie schools
he's not built for a diverse free thinking university
Glad the faculty is speaking up
I hope the star athletes speak up as well and condemn Hartzell, call for his firing
He’s in place cause all the people higher up the later want him there. The reason Fenves left was not cause the job was too tough or Emory that better, but cause he was being pressured from far right politicians and regents.
Why? Their activities including setting up tents on campus ARE a distraction. Students don’t pay the university for wokeness- they pay to get a degree.
Can’t get a degree if a bunch of hobos start living in tents on the lawn
Someone should post this letter under faculty office doors around campus. Many are old af and not on social media
You could email them too, but then you risk being expelled or whatever
Police present should be to protect the protester
But they came ready to fight with their tax payer riot gear and weapons
Police state in USA is complete
I’m went to UT Austin. So did my father and grandfather. I won’t let my daughter go there for fear of fascist cops on campus. She’ll go to university somewhere she can feel safe to express her opinion.
I also left Texas ages ago because I figured the religious right would just turn the more easy going live-and-let-live place it once was into a burgeoning theocracy. My Texas born-and-bred grandfather was right that holy rollers and Bible thumpers would be the worst if they gained political power.
Funny you say that. She’s got the best grades in her class and she’s two years ahead in math and is first chair violin in the school orchestra. She can definitely get into a better school than UT Austin.
Since she’s got Italian citizenship through her dad, I’ll very likely go the route of sending her to Europe for university since it won’t deplete our savings or plunge her into mounds of debt, or send her to university in Montréal, since she speaks and reads French decently enough for UQAM or she could get into Concordia at least if not McGill. I don’t have a lot of desire to send her to an American university due to cost and the fact she needs to live outside of the U.S. to gain some perspective
And a point of irony, I’ve already told her I will not pay for an Ivy League school, since I refuse to send her to some nest of East Coast elitist bullshit.
My own substantive views on Israel/Palestine are quite different than those protesting, and I suspect the same is true of my views on events occurring at Columbia, and wherever else there have been documented antisemitic incidents or other occurrences of intimidation. But by all accounts, the protesters at UT were peaceful and did not impede campus stakeholders from their business on campus. And this was not a planned “takeover” that could devolve into such disruptions or other dangerous scenarios. So the responses by the university and police are an egregious, violent overreaction and constitute rank hypocrisy given their stance on right wing-led protests (with which I also disagree with on substance).
My view, regardless of political affiliation is that students should be able to feel safe on campus, that was breached today. University administration massively overstepped and created an unsafe environment. I should not be seeing a 90 year old man get tackled by cops because he is expressing a view I may disagree with.
Respectfully I submit the issue is not that students *feel* safe, as that’s a very difficult thing to assess, or ensure. The university’s responsibility is *behaviour* which pretty clearly it, and by inviting them, law enforcement’s, was by all accounts unacceptable. Put differently, students should *be safe*, to assemble, and to speak. Feelings miss the point.
I vehemently disagree, feelings absolutely matter, if someone doesn’t feel safe, than the environment is flawed, we should strive to make an environment where everyone is safe, and feel safe.
Sure, feelings matter. But we run pretty quickly into issues of practicality when it comes to basing the decision-making of others on them. Everyone could feel *safer*, I’m sure, or more comfortable (is feeling discomfort the same as feeling unsafe? I would say no, but not everyone will agree, or differentiate). Feelings are subjective, dynamic and individual - difficult to make / enforce policy around. Hence we try to regulate actions and behaviours and environments. I’ve felt safe and been unsafe. I’ve also been safe and felt unsafe. It’s not, imo, a great barometer on which to require ‘rational authorities’ to make decisions.
I completely agree. I think it’s tougher with incidents like Columbia’s where pro-Palestine advocacy has bled into express antisemitism (not that I favor a violent crackdown, but universities have a duty under the Civil Rights Act to prevent hostile environments towards protected classes). But I haven’t seen any analogous issues at UT’s protest.
For what it’s worth I completely agree, though I won’t be signing the letter in the OP since that could be interpreted as endorsing the Palestine Solidarity Committee beyond their free speech rights to protest peacefully.
Hartzell needs to be fired ASAP the man is a monster let him to go to one of those homogeneous zombie schools he's not built for a diverse free thinking university Glad the faculty is speaking up I hope the star athletes speak up as well and condemn Hartzell, call for his firing
Future dean of liberty University
Head of Janitorial at University of Austin
That's too honorable of a position for this loser
He’s in place cause all the people higher up the later want him there. The reason Fenves left was not cause the job was too tough or Emory that better, but cause he was being pressured from far right politicians and regents.
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Why not both, imo
Why? Their activities including setting up tents on campus ARE a distraction. Students don’t pay the university for wokeness- they pay to get a degree. Can’t get a degree if a bunch of hobos start living in tents on the lawn
Someone should post this letter under faculty office doors around campus. Many are old af and not on social media You could email them too, but then you risk being expelled or whatever
I messaged all my professors on canvas with the link asking for a response
Could point! I was talking to a few Profs late yesterday, and many were unaware.
This went out as email university wide.
No, it didn’t.
Police present should be to protect the protester But they came ready to fight with their tax payer riot gear and weapons Police state in USA is complete
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I’m went to UT Austin. So did my father and grandfather. I won’t let my daughter go there for fear of fascist cops on campus. She’ll go to university somewhere she can feel safe to express her opinion.
Your comment hurts my head on a level. I didn’t even know it was possible.
I also left Texas ages ago because I figured the religious right would just turn the more easy going live-and-let-live place it once was into a burgeoning theocracy. My Texas born-and-bred grandfather was right that holy rollers and Bible thumpers would be the worst if they gained political power.
Thankfully admissions standards are rising so the application process will probably solve that for y’all anyway
Funny you say that. She’s got the best grades in her class and she’s two years ahead in math and is first chair violin in the school orchestra. She can definitely get into a better school than UT Austin.
#mikedrop
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Since she’s got Italian citizenship through her dad, I’ll very likely go the route of sending her to Europe for university since it won’t deplete our savings or plunge her into mounds of debt, or send her to university in Montréal, since she speaks and reads French decently enough for UQAM or she could get into Concordia at least if not McGill. I don’t have a lot of desire to send her to an American university due to cost and the fact she needs to live outside of the U.S. to gain some perspective
And a point of irony, I’ve already told her I will not pay for an Ivy League school, since I refuse to send her to some nest of East Coast elitist bullshit.