UT Austin Palestine protests: University clarifies 'confusing' messaging
AUSTIN, Texas - The University of Texas is clarifying its messaging following the arrests of protesters earlier this week.
UT students said they’ve been receiving confusing and conflicting messages from the university. On Thursday night, UT notified students about a 10 p.m. curfew and later clarified the curfew was only for protesters.
"We feel like they are actively working against us," UT student Hadi said.
On Friday morning, flyers from UT said anyone who was arrested for criminal trespassing was not allowed back on campus.
"Under what pretense, an unlawful arrest counts as an arrest? Most of these students are going to have their charges dropped because it was shown that they really did nothing," Hadi said.
Hours later, a university spokesperson clarified and said the notice was provided as a courtesy to help students and university-affiliated persons understand potential consequences for decisions to violate university rules. The spokesperson said students who were arrested and charged with trespassing are allowed on campus to continue their studies.
"They’ve been very authoritative in their demands at what they’ve been telling us lately," Hadi said.
On Wednesday, 55 people were arrested during the pro-Palestine protest on campus. All charges were dropped. The UT president pointed out almost half of the people arrested had no affiliation with UT.
On Wednesday evening, Hartzell wrote in a statement, "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."
"They tried to paint it like it’s some foreign militia coming to campus to take over, which is not the case," Hadi said.
A letter signed by more than 150 faculty members criticized Hartzell and said, "The aggressive police activity was far more disruptive of daily University functions than the planned activities could have been."
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"When people around you are getting arrested, it’s very fearful, but we are not over encompassed by our fear, we hope to continue, and this is what we plan on doing," Hadi said.
The staff members are urging the university to refrain both from pursuing criminal charges against anyone who was arrested and from disciplinary action against members of the university community who engaged in peaceful protest or teach-in activities.
A university representative said disciplinary actions haven’t been sent out to anyone and no one’s status has been changed yet.