Are House lawmakers ghosting college students and staff over campus protest rules? • Virginia Mercury

Before the Virginia legislature’s last special session adjourned, the House of Delegates formed a committee to examine how colleges and universities statewide handle campus safety. The committee formed in the wake of a series of campus protests over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war last spring that led to the arrests of dozens of students and faculty members, and criticisms of how some institutions responded to the demonstrations.

Senate hearing over campus protests to Israel-Hamas war draws criticism from Republicans

But after five months, there has yet to be a hearing or word on when one will occur.

Zahra Jalajel, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, said the House’s lack of action suggests that it is “supportive” of the universities’ and law enforcement’s protest response, which, in VCU’s case, included using pepper spray to clear encampments and arresting 13 people. 

Jalajel described the experiences as “brutal” after watching friends and schoolmates being dragged and arrested by police, and their belongings including laptops being permanently destroyed.

“I think that by not having those conversations, it is saying that we’re not important and what occurred to us is not important to them,” said Jalajel.

Updated campus protest policies still a concern

Students, university faculty members, and organizers hoped that lawmakers’ interest would help influence how universities responded to the demonstrations and take accountability for the flurry of policy changes about public demonstrations several schools have made since the protests.. Free speech advocates have described the series of updated campus policies “unprecedented” and questioned whether they infringed on students’ First Amendment rights. 

“It was violent; it was the unnecessary use of violence, and people were hurt and harmed. It didn’t have to happen that way,” said Walt Heinecke, immediate past president of the American Association of University Professors Chapter at the University of Virginia. 

“I think faculty staff and students around the commonwealth are asking for some accountability about what’s been happening and what has happened since with the changes of university protest policies.” 

Others hoped some legislation could also be proposed for the upcoming session starting in January, but they did not have any specific ideas. 

Since the spring, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has urged Virginia’s colleges and universities to “take proactive steps to update policies and improve communication channels before students return this fall,” according to an Aug. 8 email quoting Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera.

VCU has made changes like requiring students to have identification when covering their faces or heads, and banning encampments on campus grounds.

In Charlottesville, the University of Virginia administration has already implemented new disciplinary and protest policies “with no student input” from faculty members and students, according to an Aug. 21 letter from AAUP Chapter at UVA.

UVA president said protest outcome ‘upsetting’; professors condemn administration’s actions

Heinecke fears the longer lawmakers wait to meet, the policy changes could negatively impact students and faculty members.

He added that the policy changes at UVA would increase the punitive nature of protesting and make it “almost near to impossible for students to protest in what is normally accepted ways of protesting.” 

Faculty members and students could also face harsher penalties, including termination or expulsion. 

“They have made it harder to protest, they have made the consequences for protesting more severe, and they are actually squelching the First Amendment rights of students both at a psychological level and a policy level,” Heinecke said.

Legislators’ response

House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, briefly spoke with the Mercury after the first meeting was canceled. However, neither the office of Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Scott, or Herring, both committee chairs, have responded to questions about the second cancellation.

Since Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked Israel near the Gaza strip last October, killing 1,200, injuring hundreds, and taking hostages, demonstrators have called for a cease-fire and protested at five universities in Virginia last spring. In the resulting aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, Israel declared war and over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, while nearly 100,000 were injured and the health care system in Gaza has collapsed.

The Virginia demonstrations ended with more than 125 arrests at four campuses in the commonwealth — the University of Mary Washington, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia.

Since lawmakers in both chambers formed select committees in May to examine campus safety only Senate lawmakers have met, which was a contentious gathering between students, faculty members and some lawmakers.

Republicans disagreed with the hearing process, described as a “fact-finding” session, because lawmakers could not ask university leaders questions publicly. Lawmakers were urged to submit questions afterward in writing. The meeting agenda also went beyond the scope of the events, and no law enforcement agencies were directly invited to speak; instead, they were offered to comment through university leaders.

After the meeting, Capitol Police had to break up students and faculty members with opposing views. Jalajel, who identifies as a Black Palestinian, said the confrontation is an example of why Virginia’s legislature needs to get involved sooner rather than later.

“I think the climate worsens every day, and I think the sooner we have the (hearings) … maybe we’re able to make some changes before it gets worse,” Jalajel said.

A second meeting has yet to be scheduled.

Jack Leff, a recent Virginia Tech graduate arrested during the April campus protest, attempted to find more about the conversations between the House committee chairs and House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth. However, after reviewing the responses from Leff’s records request, the offices invoked their working papers exemptions and didn’t release any correspondence. 

Leff, now an adjunct professor who identifies as Jewish, said it’s important for lawmakers to investigate the campus protests to ensure the First Amendment rights of everyone, including Palestinian and Jewish activists, are honored.

“Abandoning their responsibility to protect Palestinian, Jewish, and activist students is a failure to uphold First Amendment rights,” Leff said, adding that it’s truly “undemocratic not to be investigating universities more in response to these protests.”

Leff said he’s concerned about losing his position as an adjunct professor for participating in the encampment at Virginia Tech in the spring. Despite his “strong” teaching record, he said Virginia Tech failed to renew his contract as a teacher following his arrest.

Oliver Nicholson, a senior at Virginia Tech, experienced a similar issue at an encampment at the University of Virginia. Even though the court dismissed the charges against him, and Nicholson said he regained the job he lost, he is now concerned about losing his job again.

He said the House holding its hearings could help everyone understand what happened at Virginia’s universities in response to the continuing conflict.

“I think having an official institution like the Virginia Senate, like the Virginia House, record it and show ‘Hey, here’s what the encampment is about,’ here’s what students endured, here’s how safe it actually was,’ rather than whatever demonization you saw on social media, I think that’s very valuable as providing truth and clarity on the issue,” Nicolson said. “So yeah, it’s disheartening to me that so many of these meetings have been canceled or pushed back. I would like to see them reinstated.”