Though some speculated that Student Senate President Megan Marzec asked for police presence at last weeks senate meeting, which led to four arrests, OUPD said they arrived on their own accord
Many blame Student Senate President Megan Marzec for asking Ohio University Police Department officers to come to the organization’s meeting last week — and arresting four protesting students.
But Marzec and OUPD both say she wasn’t directly responsible for their arrests and only asked for police intervention after the meeting got out of control.
OUPD decided to attend the meeting after hearing concerns that it might become a threat to public safety.
It’s protocol for them to monitor such things, said OUPD Chief Andrew Powers, in an email.
“OUPD routinely monitors events on campus, especially those with an indication that there may be a threat to public order or safety,” Powers said. “Based on information we knew prior to last week’s meeting, OUPD planned to have a presence at the meeting without being invited by either Student Senate or the University Administration.”
The students were arrested after speaking out against Marzec — moments after the meeting was called to order, but before Student Speakout began. Marzec has said Becky Sebo, president of Bobcats for Israel and sister of The Post’s assistant design editor, and other activists spoke for an extended period of time without allowing other students to address senate.
“I was not going to be able to continue the meeting,” Marzec said. “After a half-hour of giving them warnings, I took the decision to involve the police and took a democratic vote of the room and there was a resounding decision of ‘yes.’”
But once Marzec gave those officers the green light to get involved, further action became OUPD’s responsibility, Lt. Tim Ryan said.
“Megan Marzec, as the Student Senate President, attempted to restore order to the meeting on her own and was unsuccessful,” Ryan said in an email. “She then asked the police for assistance in restoring order. Once she asked us for assistance, it became a police issue.”
According to Ohio Revised Code 2917.12, its unlawful for one to do anything to prevent or disrupt a lawful meeting.
Late last week, Powers likened the senate arrests to those at OU’s Board of Trustees meeting during the spring of 2013 when Marzec and three others were arrested.
“It was exactly the same procedure that we followed at the board meeting,” Powers said.
Hillel International President and CEO Eric Fingerhut blamed Marzec for the arrests, in a statement released last week.
“Any university policy that placed the power to order those arrests in the hands of a single student, who was herself directly involved in the controversy, is wrong and must be changed,” Fingerhut said, in the statement. “These students are owed an apology from the university.”
Marzec argued on Monday that her request for OUPD to maintain order doesn’t equate to signing off on the students’ arrests — contrary to what Fingercut said in his statement.
“That doesn’t mean that I asked for people to be arrested,” she said.
Staff Writer Joshua Lim contributed to this article.
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