Policing Our Mourning

Trinity Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (SFJP) Planning Group

Whether or not you agree with our choices or know anything about the history of Palestine, any vigil is a place for mourning. The vigil organized by Trinity Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) was to mourn the immeasurable loss of life in the apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people. Mourning the lives of people who have known nothing but occupation and siege is a right, a duty and a bare minimum. Regrettably, Trinity’s administration had a different view.

On the morning of the vigil, an event approved by Student Leadership and Engagement (SLE), members of the administration emailed the executive board of the organization that submitted the event request through BantamLink, asking them to a meeting during common hour. They noted that none of the people called into the meeting “have academic commitments at that time,” as if common hour ever had scheduled classes. One administrator texted two of the people emailed on their cellphone, asking them to confirm their attendance to a meeting within less than two hours’ notice.

The meeting was a space for administrators to share their feelings regarding the vigil and its organizers, making up rules on the fly as needed. Administrators insisted that encouraging students to wear masks at a public event puts the event under the protest and demonstration policy. They also shared that collaborating with non-SGA approved organizations is not allowed. We were met with no answer as to where these rules exist in the handbook. Students and the faculty member who accompanied them were discouraged from taking notes, as administrators wanted attendees to be “present” at that meeting. They later added that the vigil “would be considered ‘expressive activity,’” and that is why it falls under the protest and demonstration policy. When asked about other campus events that would be considered “expressive activity,” administration shared that all such events go through an approval process by SLE, which the vigil did. Although the administration asserts that they “are committed to remaining content neutral when making decisions about time, place and manner,” we do not understand what sets our vigil (deemed an expressive activity) apart from other SLE-approved “expressive” campus events, other than its contents and support for Palestinian liberation.

Later that same day, those same administrators were at the vigil, with two members observing us from afar without actually being within sufficient proximity to hear the proceedings of our vigil. We felt policed, not supported.

The next morning, one of the deans requested a follow-up meeting with the same students who attended the previous meeting, conveniently leaving out the faculty member who attended. We replied saying that we expect basic decency and respect, and giving us a two hours’ notice after checking our academic commitments (as if they are our only commitments) is not that. We also said that no group of students should attend meetings about policies that affect the whole student body (i.e., masking at protests and demonstrations). If these “policies” are truly “content neutral,” the administration should have no problem informing the whole student body of them.

Administrators replied asserting that their request is “legitimate” and supposedly reassuring us that “this is not a disciplinary meeting.” They also decided that the vigil “did represent an expressive activity” and so they want “to review the relevant policy so there is no confusion with future events.” To this we ask, what is not an expressive activity and can there be a vigil that is not expressive? Once again, we also would like to request that if anything regarding school policy needs clarification, that it is transparently presented to the whole school body – unless policy selectively applies to certain groups and not others.

We would like to remind our readers that these students are ones who took it upon themselves to hold the space for Palestinian community members and others affected by the genocide to mourn the tens of thousand of Palestinian lives lost every day. Our vigil had Islamic, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist prayers. Students and faculty also shared poetry and messages about resistance, freedom, solidarity and accountability. Instead of letting us mourn in peace, members from our administration interrogated us, pressured us into a meeting and violated a sensitive time for our community members with utter disrespect and inconsideration.

In times of genocide and crimes against humanity, we are doing the bare minimum of shedding light on ongoing human suffering. Attempts to police and censor these activities are a disgrace to humanity. Trinity is complicit in genocide; we are all complicit, so please just let us mourn in peace.