RPI blocks planned student protest
Supporters of Rensselaer Union again enlist professor to protest outside black- tie event
TROY, N. Y .» When students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute first learned of what they believe is the college’s administration’s attempt to take control of the
125- year- old, student - run
Rensselaer
Union, they held a protest outside one of college President Shirley Anne Jackson’s signature annual events.
More than 18 months later, with that attempt now having the backing of the college’s Board of Trustees, students are looking to again target one of Jackson’s signature events. Like that initial attempt, however, that effort has met with resistance from the administration, but also may prove unsuccessful thanks to an RPI professor who came to students’ aid in 2016.
In a memo from Travis Apgar, assistant vice president for student life and dean of students, the college rejected an application by the group Save the Union for a peaceful demonstration between 4:30 and 11:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13, outside the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center and the Richard G. Folsom Library. Apgar specifi--
cally cites the fact that that day opens Reunion& Homecoming weekend, with Jackson hosting a black- tie event for alumni that night in EMPAC and the Folsom Library to launch the college’s capital campaign.
Apgar said security demands were the administration’s primary concern.
“Rensselaer’s Public Safety team will be fully occupied in providing security for these events in addition to their normal safety and security work,” Apgar wrote. “Given the potential for a demonstration to disrupt these events and to exceed our capacity for providing safety and security, we made a decision some time ago that we would not approve demonstration applications for the dates of October 12- 14, 2017.”
Elsewhere in the memo, Apgar does, however, pledge to “work with you on proposed alternative dates and times.” In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, however, Save the Union said it will instead take Bill Puka, a tenured faculty member in the college’s Cognitive Science Department whose areas of teaching and research include moral- political philosophy and democracy and anarchism, up on his offer to instead hold a “lab class” at the same time and in the same location as the planned demonstration.
Save the Union claims Apgar’s decision violates the regulation of student protests contained both in the college’s own rules, as well as state Education Law. They argue the so- called Henderson Rules establish both the right for students to protest outside a campus event and legal restrictions on that right, such as banning protesters from trying to enter the event they are protesting.
“If no reasonably- defined form of demonstration can happen within an event ( as the law provides) and none can happen reasonably proximate to it ( as Apgar contends), no meaningful demonstration against an event is possible,” opponents argued in their statement.
They also pointed out that RPI officials have brought in Allied Universal, a private security firm, to supplement the college’s own officers for events such as the recent campus visits of CIA Director John Brennan and Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court John Roberts.
“It seems unlikely that this large security firm is unable to provide a few additional officers for a demonstration,” the statement reads.
RPI officials did not respond to an emailed request for comment on their denial of permission for the protest or their response to the alternate plan.
Puka came to the rescue in March 2016 after the college administration denied Save the Union permission to organize a protest outside EMPAC during Jackson’s annual Spring Town Meeting to protest Jackson’s proposal to incorporate the duties of the paid, non- student director of the union into a new, college- hired executive director of student activities. Puka scheduled a “class” that drew hundreds of students, faculty, staff and alumni who surrounded the walkway leading to EMPAC.
Jackson abandoned that job search after the protest and pledged to work to improve communication between the administration and students, but also said she would consult with trustees to weigh in on control of the student union. Opponents claim, however, that she instead added authority over the union to a newly created position that would also include oversight over student government, student rights and judicial affairs. The assistant vice president and dean of students position — for which Apgar was eventually hired — was posted on thewebsite of William Spelman Executive Search, and its description included all of the job responsibilities included in the spring when the college proposed creating the executive director of student activities.
College officials called the concerns “misinformation,” though they offered in rebuttal only that the position held a different title. The union director’s position, meanwhile, remains open.
In a memo to the RPI community dated Sept. 27, Arthur Golden, chairman of the college’s Board of Trustees, said he and the rest of the board agreed with Jackson’s assertion that ultimate control over the Rensselaer Union should sit with Jackson and her administration. That decision comes despite the fact that students have controlled the union since it was formed in 1890.
Specifically, Golden backed Jackson’s argument that she should have final say over who is hired as the union’s paid, nonstudent director, a position that has been vacant since the abrupt firing of the student-hired union director, Joe Cassidy, by the college administration in December 2015.
Save the Union also took Golden to task in Thursday’s statement, calling the decision by he and fellow trustees to back Jackson a move that will “obliterate any future for student- run governance of the Union with their recent resolution in favor of replacing it with a paternalistic regime run from the President’s office.
“The notions that our Union is nothing more than a rudimentary ‘ lab course’ and that students can’t be trusted not to act in bigoted, illegal, and financially irresponsible ways are as odious as they are condescending. The Board, with its history of ugly personnel issues, financial irresponsibility, administrative opacity, and emotion- driven factless decision making, has much to learn from the Union’s smooth, competent, and transparent functioning.”
Golden’s memo came in response to a memo from Grand Marshal Justin Etzine, RPI’s top student official, and Matthew Rand, president of the union, in response to a claim by Curtis Powell, the college’s vice president for human resources, that RPI’s bylaws give Jackson sole authority to appoint the director of the union. Powell cited terms in the bylaws that charges the college president to “approve annually the terms and conditions of employment and salary policies for all staff, faculty, administrators and other employees of the Institute,” he wrote, quoting from the bylaws. Powell further goes on to cite a section of the bylaws that specifically states the union falls under those bylaws.
Etzine and Rand argued the terms cited by Powell are superceded by the union’s own constitution, in which, they argue, authority to fill the director’s position was specifically delegated to the union’s executive board by college trustees. Since trustees approved the union constitution after the cited portions of the college by laws were adopted, the pair argued the constitution negates those terms in the bylaws.
A new resolution approved by the board’s Executive Committee, however, specifically restores to Jackson power to hire the union’s director.
Golden also included in his memo a specific vote of confidence in Jackson, who has been the object of criticism by students, faculty, staff and alumni for what they claim is heavyhanded administrative methods. Students have received strong support from alumni, who are the specific target of Jackson’s black- tie event, but who also claim Jackson’s autonomous administration has led many of them no longer donate to the college. A recently formed group of concerned alumni, calling themselves Renew Rensselaer, said the effort to take away student control of the union flies in the face of the college’s history.
Opponents claim Jackson’s moves are an attempt to take over the lucrative facility, which houses student services such as a bookstore, meeting rooms and other spaces for clubs and other organizations to meet, as well as entertainment, performing arts and fitness facilities. They also claimit is indicative of a larger desire by Jackson tohave complete control of all aspects of the college.
The college’s finances have come into question in recent years, with Standard & Poor’s, a leading credit rating agency, lowering RPI’s long- term-bond rating at the beginning of the year from A- to BBB+, citing the college’s high debt burden and low available resources. BBB is the lowest score for which a bond would be considered investment grade, according to S& P.