UConn professors’ union angers cops with letter defending student protesters

The unions representing University of Connecticut professors and Graduate students penned a joint letter to University President Radenka Maric expressing “deep concern about the arrest of 25 peaceful protesters, 24 current students and 1 former, by the UConn police,” and asking that the students not be disciplined, but the letter has received pushback from the union representing UConn police who called it an “unconscionable attack on UConn Police Officers.”

UConn police moved in to make arrests and remove encampments at UConn after the university initially informed students they could protest but not set up tents. After students set up tents, they reportedly received multiple warnings before police moved in to take down the tents and make arrests.

While the UConn chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the UConn Graduate Employee & Postdoc Union letter was largely focused on allowing students to protest and not be disciplined by the school, it also included accusations that students were physically handled and injured by police during the break up of the encampment and arrest.

“On Thursday evening, UConn police put hands on students, used their bodies to attempt to break a line of students linking arms, dislocated a student’s shoulder, and in at least one case, pushed a student to the ground,” the UConn AAUP wrote. “On Tuesday, UConn police arrested dozens of students in the presence of state troopers and municipal police.”

The UConn AAUP and GEU union letter said the UConn protests were peaceful and included yoga, teach-ins, pizza, art workshops, and singing, among other activities.

However, the letter apparently angered the Connecticut Police and Fire Union (CPFU), which represents UConn police officers, with union President Kevin Saunders and the union executive board calling the letter an “unconscionable attack on UConn Police officers by other unions,” and saying it was “unacceptable and unnecessary.”

“We are deeply saddened that many key facts are missing from this letter, and our members of the UConn Police Department are being unfairly targeted for doing their jobs,” the union executive board wrote. “There is no place for other unions to participate in anti-union activity to progress their own agenda.”

The statement also calls on the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) to issue a statement supporting their police officers and say that the desire by some SEBAC unions “to branch out into other areas of social justice and public protest should be taken up on their own accord, without SEBAC dues money, and without any connection to SEBAC in any fashion.”

Like many universities and colleges across the country, students at UConn, Yale, Trinity, and Weslyan have been protesting the Israel-Hamas war and calling on their respective universities to divest from companies that produce arms for Israel. The protests and university responses, which sometimes involve police breaking up encampments and dispersing and arresting protesters, have captured much media and political attention over the past several weeks.

According to UConn AAUP’s Call to Action and Information Resource page , the union is not taking a position on the war but is rather defending students’ rights to free speech and assembly and calling for “amnesty” for the arrested students.

An earlier letter from April 26 , signed by a long list of students, alumni, staff, and faculty proclaimed their solidarity with student protesters “who are calling on their institution not to be complicit with the continued slaughter of Palestinians,” and demanded UConn respect their right to assemble, listen, and “negotiate in good faith.”

The letter to President Maric mirrors similar open letters made by the national AAUP and the American Civil Liberties Union. The Connecticut State University Chapter of the AAUP passed a resolution on May 7, defending students’ right to free speech and saying their 3,000 members “are increasingly alarmed by the arrest of approximately 2,000 protesters at colleges and universities across the country, including Connecticut.”

Reached for comment, UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said the arrested students’ cases are now pending in Superior Court, which will determine the ultimate legal outcomes for those students facing charges of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, but that UConn cannot disclose whether students will face disciplinary proceedings.

In a letter published in the UConn Today newspaper , President Maric, Provost Anne D’Alleva, and Vice President Nathan Furst wrote, “UConn unequivocally supports the rights of our students and community at large to express themselves through speech and peaceful assembly, as well as through the bedrock right of academic freedom.”

The UConn officials also wrote that many appreciated their disassembling of the “unauthorized encampment during finals and in advance of commencement ceremonies,” while others “expressed disagreement.”

“We need to keep in mind that there are countless ways for students, faculty, staff, and others in our community to exercise their constitutional right to free speech that do not violate University policy or practice,” Maric, D’Alleva, and Furst wrote. “The group assembled did not comply with requirements to reserve the space for their use, the University initially permitted them to remain. At the same time, content-neutral restrictions on time, place, and manner of expression enable a diverse community like ours to share the same space and enjoy equal rights.”

“Given the importance of free speech and freedom of assembly in public space, we condemn the administration’s mobilization of the police,” the letter continued. “We urge the UConn administration not to pursue disciplinary action against peaceful protesters. It is the responsibility of the labor movement to be first line defenders of civil liberties, and we stand in solidarity with students and demand that the University of Connecticut honor their right to assemble and exercise free speech.”

“The continued anti-police movement continues to result in low department morale, heavy officer employment turnover and a decrease in public servants filling the ranks, not only at UConn, but many other police agencies in Connecticut and across the country,” the CPFU wrote.

The post UConn professors’ union angers cops with letter defending student protesters appeared first on Connecticut Inside Investigator .