Calls to limit ties between colleges and local police forces grew stronger this week as student leaders from at least three more universities demanded that they follow the University of Minnesota’s lead and take strong stands against police violence and institutional racism.
In a letter to Ohio State University officials on Monday, leaders of three student organizations called on the university’s police department to cut its contractual ties to the Columbus Police Department for all on-campus investigations, services, and events.
They criticized the city police department’s decision to use wooden bullets, tear gas, and pepper spray to disperse protesters last week after largely peaceful protests became heated.
A call to the Columbus Police Department on Tuesday was not immediately returned.
The students also urged Ohio State to cut back on the amount of local patrolling at off-campus housing and to restrict money being spent on “further militarization” of the campus’s own police force. That money should be shifted instead, the letter says, to diversity offices and other student-support services.
“We, the student representatives of the Ohio State University, firmly and without hesitation, condemn the violent and inexcusable actions of the Columbus Police Department during these protests and harm the department has caused black and marginalized communities for decades,” says the letter, signed by the Undergraduate Student Government, the Council of Graduate Students, and the Inter-Professional Council.
“Our city is burning, our students are hurting, the safety and well-being of the black community is at inherent risk, and there is no other time to act than now,” they wrote.
The Black Student Alliance at the University of Virginia on Monday also released a statement condemning police violence and calling on the university to keep outside law-enforcement agencies, including the Charlottesville Police Department, off the campus. In addition, the alliance demanded that the university prohibit its own officers from carrying firearms.
Brian T. Coy, a spokesman for the University of Virginia, said in a written statement that the campus’s police and public-safety staff are well trained in keeping students, employees, and community members safe “in a manner that respects the sanctity of human life and reflects the values of professionalism, dignity, humility, and compassion.” He said the university relies on its strong relationships with the city and county police. A spokeswoman for the Charlottesville police said the department does not have a contractual obligation to patrol the university’s grounds “nor has UVa’s leadership reached out to our department to discuss our Memorandum of Understanding.”
A Quick Response
The demands from Ohio and Virginia were inspired by the University of Minnesota’s decision to cut certain ties with the Minneapolis Police Department following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody. Minnesota’s president, Joan T. Gabel, made that announcement last week after the student-body president, Jael Kerandi, demanded that the university sever its partnership with the local police force.
Kerandi said on Tuesday that she had heard from student leaders on three or four other campuses who planned to make similar demands of their universities. The quick response to her own, at Minnesota, was encouraging, she said.
“Considering how slowly higher education usually moves, I was extremely excited by this first step,” Kerandi said.
She also heard from the University of Louisville’s Black Student Union, which criticized the university’s ties with the Louisville Metro Police Department. A letter written by the group’s president, Maliya Homer, cited the case of Breonna Taylor, an African American emergency-room technician who was killed in her home in March by police officers executing a search warrant.
In a statement on Tuesday, Benjamin Johnson, an Ohio State spokesman, reiterated President Michael V. Drake’s commitment to work with community partners to “deepen and extend our dialogue on how to actively address racial injustice.” He said the president planned to meet with the student leaders to discuss their specific concerns.
“As President Drake wrote on Saturday, George Floyd suffered a horrendous and completely unnecessary death,” Johnson wrote. “His killing, and those that have come before, demand that we create a different future. We know our students, faculty, and staff are hurting. We are here to support them, and we are inspired by their commitment to this cause.”
On Monday night, Drake also supported a Columbus City Council resolution declaring racism a public-health crisis.
Echoing a May 26 statement by Kerandi, the Ohio State groups said that they were no longer interested in bias training and community dialogue, and that stronger action was necessary.
“Community dialogue does not work when you kill the community,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the president of Clark University, David P. Angel, on Tuesday released a statement expressing “anger and concern” over the Worcester Police Department’s response, with riot gear and pepper spray, to a Monday-evening protest. Four students at the Massachusetts university were among those arrested.
“We do not at this time know the full circumstances or details of these events,” Angel wrote. “What we do know is that the police actions we have witnessed are unacceptable and a source of dismay to all within our community.”
He said the university would investigate what had happened and discontinue using off-duty Worcester police officers, suspending a policy that requires such an officer at large student events. The university will also evaluate anti-bias and de-escalation training of the campus’s police officers and staff.
