Dozens of Texas State University students who were angry over a thwarted attempt to impeach the student-government president staged a sit-in at a student center that stretched into its second day on Thursday.
A vote on whether to impeach the student leader, Connor Clegg, was scuttled on Wednesday because 19 of the 40 student senators failed to show up for a meeting at which they were to consider the matter. Clegg insisted, in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman, that he had had nothing to do with their absences and that he wished a quorum had been present so they could vote.
Clegg, whose term ends next week, upset many minority students at Texas State by threatening to defund the student newspaper after a student, Rudy Martinez, wrote a controversial opinion piece titled “Your DNA Is an Abomination.”
The university’s president, Denise M. Trauth, publicly denounced the column, which was meant to encourage discussion of white privilege, as racist.
The students who staged the sit-in have accused the president of being too slow to condemn the death threats and hate mail that Martinez received as a result of the column. They also believe the administration hasn’t done enough to counter the threats and leafleting by white-supremacist groups that have targeted the campus, in San Marcos, over the past year.
Students have also criticized Clegg for social-media posts in 2014 that they viewed as offensive to Asian-Americans. He did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The aborted impeachment vote served as a flash point for simmering frustration over what some students see as a hostile climate for minority students.
The tensions that have boiled over this year prompted a Texas Senate panel to hold a hearing on the campus in January on how lawmakers believe free speech is being threatened on college campuses and what can be done about it.
Trauth met with the protesters on Thursday to update them on steps the administration has been taking to make the campus more inclusive. Three administrators also met with the protesters on Wednesday.
Among the students’ demands are the immediate removal of Clegg and stronger steps to meet the needs of minority students, including a full-time lawyer to help immigrant students.
Jasmine Jackson, a freshman who was among the protesters camped out at the student center, said the students were also demanding that the president “denounce the toxic atmosphere of the university with regard to students of color.”
A group of student senators who did attend Wednesday’s meeting called on Clegg to resign immediately. They also called on the senators who didn’t show up and whose two-year terms will continue next year to step down, saying they had broken their oaths to serve students.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
