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."