An open letter to President Shalala: Your actions were a betrayal to the New School community

Aarya Kini is the Editor-in-Chief of the New School Free Press. 

President Shalala, 

On the morning of May 3, just as members of our Gaza Solidarity Encampment were waking up, over 100 New York Police Department officers in riot gear raided two of our university buildings and arrested 45 of them, doing so after you called them to our campus. You broke your administration’s promise that those at the encampment would be warned of arrests in writing. NYPD officers also denied some students the opportunity to leave the buildings before they were arrested. 

To say that this is a betrayal of our institution’s commitment to social justice only scratches the surface of the shock and disappointment felt by our community. Having armed police officers arresting students on our campus, in early morning hours while they are unable to access the guidance and support of their faculty and peers, is not a reality that we should have to accept, nor one that we will ever forget.

In the email you sent to the community a few hours after the arrests, explaining the police action on campus, you justified your decision by saying that you had “no choice” but to ask the NYPD to “clear” the UC, Kerrey Hall, and Parsons buildings where students had been demonstrating. 

Students for Justice in Palestine’s demand for divestment was first made public in November of last year, and since then has been widely endorsed by students and faculty. If you had listened to your community earlier, you would not have had “no choice” but to call in the NYPD on sleeping students. It did not have to come down to this, and there were certainly other options the administration could have pursued.

The New School openly advertises that it is home to more than 3,500 international students, and “welcomes undocumented students and students who hold DACA status to apply.” The grave consequences that criminal charges and suspensions can have on these students is clear, yet still you invited the NYPD into our buildings. Regardless of whether the university chooses to pursue the charges and student conduct trials against the students, you have already put their personal safety, emotional well-being, and academic and professional careers at risk. 

Your email also notes that the administration has been “very tolerant of the students’ right to free speech.” For the president of a university that reaffirms its commitment to free speech in multiple policies, it’s disappointing that you believe that students’ First Amendment right to freedom of expression is something to be “tolerant” of, rather than something to embrace to its fullest extent. After all, according to the university’s document on Free Speech & Safety On Campus, you are aware that “at times, the exercise of free speech and expression in a university community will result in exchanges that are heated, controversial, deeply passionate, and even uncomfortable for members of the university community.” 

You have also repeatedly cited the safety of other students and access to campus spaces as a reason for allowing the NYPD in and around our buildings. The New School Free Press reported on the rally that took place at the UC the evening before the arrests were made, and at no point did reporters witness the safety of other students being endangered. The students were also not prevented from entering campus spaces, as you claimed. In fact, there were multiple signs posted on the facade of the UC, informing students of alternative ways to enter the UC and Kerrey Hall. 

The university cannot continue to use this reasoning to shut down peaceful demonstrations without providing specificity as to how the protests are actually inhibiting students’ safety and campus access, and ensuring that the information you share as fact is verifiably true.

The same day as the arrests, you unexpectedly shut down our entire campus during one of the busiest weeks of the semester. While this certainly interfered with the “educational mission” that you claim your decision was intended to safeguard, it also meant that reporters from the New School Free Press were blocked from accessing our newsroom. With some negotiating with campus security and intervention from our advisor, we were able to obtain our press passes and equipment from the newsroom, but still were unable to access any space on campus from which we could report. As a student journalist, I am wary of attempts to prevent student journalists from reporting, considering the barriers that other campus papers are currently facing as they attempt to cover administrative and police responses to demonstrations.

President Shalala, while I dispute much of what you have said in your communications thus far, we are both in agreement that it is indeed “a sad day for all of us who are part of this university community and who believe in free speech, which we have pledged to protect and will continue to protect.” 

As the editor-in-chief of the New School Free Press, I am a part of that community and share in your disappointment. But my disappointment is in you, our Board of Trustees, and other university administrators who continue to proclaim a commitment to free speech yet enabled the arrest of 45 students on our campus in response to a peaceful demonstration. 

I am also acutely aware that the same rights that protect student protesters are the ones that protect campus journalism. As such, I want to affirm that as journalists, those on the New School Free Press will continue to do their jobs to hold our institution accountable. While our community rallies for divestment, financial transparency, and their right to protest peacefully, the New School Free Press will keep asking questions of the administration, prioritize the voices of our students, staff, and faculty, and write the stories we believe our readers deserve to know. 

In the meantime, I urge you to drop the criminal charges and interim suspensions against the arrested students, and consider how the actions you take moving forward can reflect the commitment to free speech that you have pledged to protect.

To write to the Editor-in-Chief, email aaryakini@newschool.edu. To send in tips or pitch an op-ed, email nsfreepress@gmail.com.