Faculty, students at protest call for UT President Hartzell to resign after police response

Some faculty members and students are calling for the removal of University of Texas President Jay Hartzell after more than 50 people, many of them students, were arrested Wednesday at a peaceful but unauthorized pro-Palestinian protest on campus calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Polly Strong, the president of the UT chapter of the American Association of University Professors, called on faculty to sign a petition of no confidence in Hartzell.

"The President has shown himself to be unresponsive to urgent faculty, staff, and student concerns. He has violated our trust," the petition said. "The University is no longer a safe and welcoming place for the diverse community of students and scholars who until now have called this campus home."

The letter cited the April 2 terminations of dozens of former staff members of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the police response to the protest.

Members of the professor group were collecting signatures at the rally. A vote of no confidence has not been formally called.

The faculty members and students made the comments at a protest on Thursday that was held to condemn the police intervention in Wednesday's peaceful protest. The Texas State Employees Union had ceded the space to a group called the UT Austin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine for the event, postponing the union's planned rally against a state ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public universities.

More: Charges dropped against all 57 arrested in connection to UT-Austin pro-Palestinian protest

“We have lost confidence in those that call themselves leaders who abandoned their community and their campus after inviting the police state to take over this campus,” said Pavithra Vasudevan, an assistant professor at UT. “The university leadership do not speak for us.”

A group of hundreds of protesters gathered in a circle on the Main Mall in front of the UT Tower as officials and political representatives gave speeches for an hour and a half.

The tone of the demonstration was much quieter than Wednesday's, though pro-Israel counterprotesters and some UT police officers were present. Police did not intervene.

After the speakers finished, with chants throughout, the crowd dispersed. Some people left to pray.

Rhiannon Hamam, a staff member at UT and an alum, told the crowd she was arrested Wednesday when demonstrating with students and was released from jail at 5 a.m.

“I am here to speak to you about betrayal,” Hamam said. “We have all been betrayed by Jay Hartzell and any university administration who called on an attack on students and workers of UT by multiple law enforcement agencies.”

Hamam said she was pushed by police. She said she saw people who were dragged by their hair or grabbed by their legs.

“A peaceful protest was met with violence by the hands of" the Texas DPS, UT police and Austin police, City Council Member Zo Qadri, who also spoke to the crowd, said. “That's bullshit.”

Ammer Qaddumi, the first student arrested Wednesday, also came to the protest. The crowd erupted in cheers. Before leaving to take an exam, he told the crowd he wants Hartzell to resign.

In a statement shared by UT spokesperson Brian Davis, the university said 26 people who were arrested during Wednesday's protest were not affiliated with UT. The statement also criticized the nature of the protest, saying it "sought to follow the playbook of the national campaign to paralyze the operations of universities across the country."

“Thirteen pro-Palestinian free speech events have taken place at the University largely without incident since October,” the statement said. “In contrast, this one in particular expressed an intent to disrupt the campus and directed participants to break Institutional Rules and occupy the University, consistent with national patterns.”

Vasudevan said the protest Wednesday was supposed to be educational and have art, pizza and teach-ins on the lawn.

“We are not allowed on this campus to express any sentiment or emotion about an ongoing genocide,” Vasudevan said to press after the gathering. “And that is a repression that we can no longer tolerate.”

A few dozen students with the Longhorn Students for Israel gathered next to the larger group. Waving Israeli flags, the students called, "Let my people go.” One sign read, “Stop calling it a peaceful protest.”

The Jewish students came out to stand with their university, Lily Caplan said. For those who didn’t agree with the pro-Palestinian protesters, the police presence Wednesday was comforting.

Caplan said she heard antisemitic speech during Wednesday’s protest and felt uncomfortable. Another student, Abbie Barkan, also said she heard hateful speech.

“There’s a fine line between free speech and hate speech,” Caplan said.

Some Jewish students, however, participated in the pro-Palestinian rally.

“It’s my responsibility as a young Jewish person to fight for a free Palestine,” Oli Hoffman said.

As Hoffman described a desire to stand with her “Palestinian brothers and sisters,” one student called out in question, “We’re Jews. What the heck?”

While protesters from both sides got into verbal arguments about the war, both groups remained largely separate. Toward the end of the protest, about 2 p.m., the pro-Israel students moved to a grassy area near the main protest.

Roger Reeves, another faculty member at the rally, told press that the difference in the tone of protest today versus yesterday was the police response.

“When students bring peace, they saw violence being brought in response,” Reeves said.

Sofia Westmoreland, a freshman at UT, was at the Texas Union on Wednesday when the evacuation order from the university police came over the loudspeaker around 5 p.m. She said it created a lot of "panic" in students.

But after witnessing the Wednesday protest herself and talking to protesters, she believed the protest was not violent.

"I think they are conflating passion with violence," she said about the perception that the protest was dangerous.

On Thursday, she had a final exam in a building around the South Mall, but said she was worried police would escalate the protest again and mistake her for a protester.

"UT tries to pride itself on how it allows students to share their opinions and thoughts, and yet we see the exact opposite happening now," she said. "It's making me question the morality of the actual administration."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Faculty, students want UT President to resign after police response