Faculty Senate Votes for Review of Encampment Shutdown

UVA President Jim Ryan under questioning.

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia Faculty Senate voted Friday to call for an “independent and external” review of the use of police force to shut down the pro-Palestinian “liberation zone” near the University Chapel a week previously.

In a second vote, the Faculty Senate rejected a resolution denouncing the Virginia State Police’s “vastly asymmetric displays of force” in arresting 27 students, employees, and others.

The votes capped a two-hour session during which President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom expressed regret for the pain resulting from the arrests while also defending the decision to shut down the tent encampment.

“I know this is still very raw,” said Ryan. “I talked to people who were there. And it was horrible to see. And frightening. And traumatic. And I also know, we have lost some trust, and some of you feel a sense of betrayal.”

Provost Ian Baucom expressed regret at the “pain” felt by students and the community.

Baucom was even more apologetic. Referring to his role advising Ryan in the command post, “I think I lived that moment in my head and maybe not enough with my heart.” He alluded over and over to the “pain” felt by the people at the encampment and in the community. “There are many things I replay in my head,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Under questioning from a faculty member, Ryan did defend his actions. The people in the encampment repeatedly refused to enter into dialogue with the administration, funneling their demands through faculty members, he said. He believed that his presence at the scene would “amp things up rather than damp things down.”

But the main job of defending the dismantling of the encampment fell to University Police Chief Tim Longo. While the top brass huddled in a “command post,” he was the University’s man on the spot. He succeeded for several days in persuading protesters to take down the tents, which violated university policy and were the main point of contention. He was there Friday night, when the encampment, though peaceful at that time, was growing in numbers, the tents were back up, and social media appeals were calling for more people and supplies. And he was there again Saturday morning when he gave the order to take the tents down.

“People showed up whom I know didn’t belong here.” Longo said. “They’re not students here. They’re not members of this faculty. And my law enforcement sources on the ground said these were people who would make the temperature go up. And I was afraid. … I was afraid because the tone was changing.”

The Senate did not have much time for fact finding, however. The professors had resolutions before them, and they devoted most of their time to debating and wordsmithing them.

The initial version of the first resolution, approved by the Senate’s executive committee, called for an external review of the events of May 4 but contained language that some faculty members said presupposed the administration’s culpability.

The draft condemned “the use of asymmetrical force against members of our community.” It also stated that police actions “violated our shared university space, harmed both bodies and spirits, and undermined the values of union and trust in shared governance.” The draft also demanded that “University policies be changed or enacted to prohibit the use of force against peaceful protest.”

Those and other passages of the original draft were removed.

Discussion also centered on the meaning of “external” review. Who would conduct that review? The administration? The Board of Visitors? The Governor’s Office? Some faculty members found none of those alternatives palatable, but that language stayed in.

The resolution calling for an independent and external review passed. No vote count was released.

Next the Faculty Senate took up a resolution that explicitly denounced the police action. It read:

We, the members of the Faculty Senate, denounce the events of May 4, 2024, when the University of Virginia senior administration deployed armed Virginia State Police in full body armor to remove a small, unarmed group of peaceful protesters that largely consisted of members of the University community on our Grounds, thereby risking the most unimaginable catastrophe, and this police force, using pepper spray and vastly asymmetric displays of force, aggressively arrested 27 individuals including students and current/former employees.

Some faculty members spoke against the measure. The main objection was that the resolution would conflict with the previous resolution calling for an inquiry into the incident. The Senate would be acting on the basis of incomplete information, such as what undercover intelligence the police had received, one professor said. Many protesters were not affiliated with the University, observed another. The time to consider denouncing the administration, said a third, would be when the Senate had the full picture.

The motion was defeated. No vote count was released.