I am an OSU graduate and Columbus resident and a member of the Campaign for BDS at Ohio State.
To the Editor,
I am an OSU graduate and Columbus resident and a member of the Campaign for BDS at Ohio State. I attended the meeting of the Ohio University Student Government Wednesday night to stand in solidarity with Student Senate President Megan Marzec and her supporters. Needless to say, I and most of the other attendees, were surprised by the events of the meeting, and I am writing this letter to provide clarity and defend the decisions of President Marzec and the Student Senate.
By now, it is not necessary for me to repeat the countless threats and racist, sexist, and Islamophobic abuse that President Marzec, her supporters, and students of color in general have received over the last several days. Numerous students of color at the meeting stated that they no longer felt welcome at the university, as they witnessed their heritages, cultures, and identities referred to as "animalistic" or "uncivilized." It is within this context of harassment and violence that several members of Bobcats for Israel forcibly disrupted the meeting, shouting down discussion, and speaking over leaders who continue to face harassment and the threat of abuse.
In any other circumstance, these disruptive actions would have been recognized as such and halted immediately by university police—as was the case in recent protests against student debt at the OU Board of Trustees. However, in this case, police allowed the student disruptors to continue, and the Student Senate attempted to conduct its scheduled business. But the sustained disruptions made discussion all but impossible, and President Marzec made the difficult decision to put the question of arrest before the floor for discussion, which received a nearly unanimous approval. Even then, it took substantial pressure from all of us to push the police in attendance to remove the disruptors—as one speaker noted, it took less than a minute for students protesting debt to be arrested, while it took nearly 45 minutes for police to arrest these disruptors.
The decision by President Marzec to put the course of action to a vote was, by far, the most democratic response that I have ever seen to any disruption in my years as an activist. She could have made that decision unilaterally, without discussion or a vote, but she refused to do so. Rather, she brought everyone into the decision-making process, reflecting her genuine and complete commitment to building a democratic student movement.
To be clear, the arrest of the disruptors had nothing to do with their politics. In the open discussion period that followed their removal, numerous voices, including both critics and supporters of Israel, participated. This is about the violent and forceful disruption of OU's democratic student body and the continuation of a series of intimidations, threats, and attacks on those who choose to stand courageously against oppression. This should not, and cannot, continue, and I am glad to see President Marzec, and many dozens of others, stand together for democracy and against injustice.
Tim Adams is a graduate of Ohio State University and a member of the campaign for BDS at OSU.
