Anger at Marquette for protest punishment
Students were drawing attention to lack of diversity support staff
Marquette University has sanctioned students who protested late last month during a freshmen welcome event, outraging some members of the campus community who see the punishment as missing the larger point students were trying to make.
More than 100 students and staff marched down West Wisconsin Avenue to the university’s union on Wednesday in support of the welcome event demonstrators, who protested what they describe as a lack of resources devoted to students of color.
Marquette officials declined Wednesday to specify the punishments, citing federal student privacy laws, but teachers involved in the students’ cases said the sanctions varied and included probation, community service, a mandatory apology letter, a $300 fine or “suspension in abeyance,” which means the suspension won’t take effect or appear on student transcripts so long as they don’t engage in any additional policy violations.
“I ask why this was even a student conduct process in the first place,” education assistant professor Julissa Ventura told the crowd Wednesday. “It could have been different. They (university administration) had so many choices at so many times during this whole process and every time they have chosen to further harm our most vulnerable students on this campus. We will not stand by while they do that.”
The protesters took to the stage on Aug. 25 shortly before the start of Convocation, an event formally introducing incoming freshmen and their families to the Marquette community. The protesters yelled “shut it down” while holding signs that read “We are not a token” and “We have a voice too.”
The small group included student government leaders, as well as members of the Black Student Council, Latin American Student Association and the NAACP, all of whom aimed to draw attention to staffing shortages in campus offices or programs that support students of color. The Office of Engagement and Inclusion, for example, has at least four vacancies that Marquette is trying to fill.
Marquette quickly canceled the event and rescheduled Convocation for last Saturday, which coincided with Family Weekend.
The university said in a statement Wednesday it recognizes the protesters’ frustrations about campus climate but “the way in which these