ADMINISTRATION ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE STUDENT SPEECH AT BEHEST OF PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY; ATTEMPTS TO CANCEL STUDENT CONFERENCE

September 12, 2003

NEW BRUNSWICK - (September 12, 2003) - Dean Marie Logue of the Department of Student Affairs at Rutgers College; Rutgers University today announced to several student representatives of student Palestine advocacy organization New Jersey Solidarity that the administration has deemed that "logistics" forbid students to proceed with a national Palestine solidarity conference scheduled for October 10-12, 2003; the student organization is determined to continue, saying they will hold the conference "wherever we must." This decision comes the day University President Robert McCormick is scheduled to appear at a dinner sponsored by Rutgers Hillel, a Zionist group on campus.

The hastily-called meeting, to which students were called on Thursday evening, was unexplained. The organization's faculty advisor, Dr. Robert Trivers, was unavailable, and students attempted to reschedule the meeting, but were denied. Dean Logue stated at the meeting that "deadlines" prevented the conference from occurring, even though students had raised over $6,000 to be deposited in their account and met with Dean Johnston of Rutgers College on September 5 - the day of the allegedly missed deadlines. Organizers replied that this assertion was "ludicrous. The deans of this University have made it clear on numerous occasions that they do not want this conference to happen. This is political repression - just as the Palestinian people have been repressed through history. The University is attempting to abuse bureaucracy in order to silence student voices," said Paola Rizzuto, a Rutgers College sophomore and President of the organization.

"We refuse to be silenced. We will hold our conference wherever we must - in a hotel, in a park, wherever. The Palestinian people have continued to resist despite incredible and overwhelming force displayed against them - and we owe them nothing less than to refuse to be silenced. We stand in solidarity with Palestine, and we call upon this university to divest all of its funds from the state of Israel and companies that do business with it. To do otherwise is to support apartheid. This is an official action on the part of Rutgers University in support of apartheid," said Charlotte Kates, a second-year student at Rutgers School of Law in Newark.

Robert McCormick, the University's new President, is scheduled to appear tonight at a Hillel-sponsored dinner at Brower Commons, the University dining hall. Rutgers Hillel is sponsoring "Israel Inspires," a counter-conference that will take place the same weekend as the student Palestine solidarity conference. "This appearance indicates the overt bias and discrimination displayed by Rutgers University administration," said Cecilia Joulain, a Douglass College senior and Treasurer of New Jersey Solidarity. "Bureaucracy is not an excuse. This is an attempt to silence student organizing at the University."