SERIOUSLY?: Yale students criticize appointment of incoming president for decision to arrest pro-Palestine campus occupiers
Yale students and faculty criticized the appointment of an incoming president over her handling of anti-Israel encampments.
Yale students and faculty criticized the appointment of an incoming president over her handling of anti-Israel encampments.
Maurie McInnis was announced as Yale University’s next president on May 29. As president of Stony Brook University, according to the Yale Daily News, she oversaw the decision to break up an anti-Israel encampment on May 2, which resulted in the arrest of 22 students, two faculty, and five other individuals.
According to The Statesman, nine individuals were arrested during a sit-in protest at an administration building at Stony Brook University on March 26.
Patrick Hayes, a Yale student, told the Yale Daily News that he’s “very concerned” with the appointment of McInnis.
“I’m deeply troubled by her track record, both by the way that she repressed students at Stony Brook and also by her role in Yale’s complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine through the refusal of the Board of Trustees to divest from military weapons manufacturing,” Hayes said. “I hope she proves my concern wrong, but based on what she’s shown to the public, I’m very concerned.”
Roderick Ferguson, a member of Yale Faculty for Justice in Palestine. said McInnis’ decision to arrest protesters “chill[s] both assembly and analysis.”
“One threat comes from campus and city police, and another comes from the threat of legal actions and doxing,” Ferguson wrote. “Both forms of policing are unleashed in this period of advocacy for Palestinians and critiques of Israeli state violence … Given her history, there is reason to be concerned about how Dr. McInnis will negotiate the rights of assembly, free speech, and academic inquiry.”
McInnis told the outlet that her decision to arrest students was based on “content-neutral time, place, manner restrictions.”
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“I understand that many are upset by my decision on this matter, and no president wants to request that authorities intervene to disperse student protests,” a university spokesperson wrote on her behalf. “We did all we could to avoid arrests, and our decision was guided by the imperative to protect the well-being of our entire community and allow access to campus for everyone.”
