A Timeline of Oppressive Measures

June 1, 2023:  Jay Bernhardt’s first day as president 

Oct. 9, 2023: President Bernhardt sends an email in support of Israel. No mention of Palestine.

Oct. 10, 2023: RA orders student to remove whiteboard from their door for displaying pro-Palestine messages.

Nov. 3, 2023: Anna Feder, former Director of the Bright Lights Cinema Series, is instructed to postpone the screening of the film Israelism.

Nov. 10, 2023: Bernhardt responds to students’ emails from October, advising them not to make demands. Reaffirms support for Israel.

Dec. 6, 2023: Police stand outside a Students for Justice in Palestine and Emerson DSA joint community event.

December 2023: Emerson’s protest policy is updated for the first time in years. New policy states that the college may control or forbid demonstrations within any and all Emerson spaces under threat of discipline.

Jan. 23, 2024: Emerson continues to hold segregated faith gatherings. Director of Spiritual Life suggests that interfaith events would lead to aggression.

Jan. 26, 2024: Students for Justice in Palestine leaders can no longer reserve spaces on campus to meet.

Feb. 1, 2024: Anna Feder screens Israelism. The administration issues a statement of nonendorsement for the film and insists on police presence during the screening. It is the best-attended screening in the history of the Bright Lights Cinema Series.

Feb. 8, 2024: Christie Anglade of Student Life shuts down SJP’s tabling and covertly photographs students. Emerson refuses to engage in questions about Gaza in the Teach-in On Race.

March 7, 2024: Students leaflet outside of the Paramount Theater production Golda’s Balcony. An ECPD officer snatches the leaflets from their hands and orders them to disperse. The students comply and still receive disciplinary letters.

March 21, 2024: Bernhardt sends an email to the community warning that demonstrators who violate his protest policy during his inauguration “will be held accountable.” Twenty-six student activists are already charged with policy violations for leafleting.

March 22, 2024: 13 students are arrested for protesting outside the Cutler Majestic on a public sidewalk. Those students are notified that they are banned from entering campus until further notice.

March 24, 2024: Arrested students are called into disciplinary meetings with the administration. They are informed that they may return to campus the next day. (Ten months later, conduct code charges are still in place and an investigation is still threatened.)

March 27, 2024: The college withdraws student conduct code charges related to the March 22 demonstration.

April 21, 2024: Emerson students establish an encampment in the Boylston Place alley.

April 22, 2024: Students meet with the president; he is invited to a seder at the encampment and declines to come.

 April 25, 2024: 118 students are violently arrested. The Emerson administration does not communicate any information about the injuries and hospitalizations their students and staff suffered. A later report in The Boston Globe reveals that the school was working closely with the city. Protest policy is updated to forbid protests in the Boylston Place alley.

April 26, 2024: Student Government Association casts a unanimous vote demanding that Jay Bernhardt resign as president.

April 28, 2024: The president states, in an email to the community, “The College will not bring any campus disciplinary charges against the protestors.” 

April 29, 2024: At a community-wide town hall, students, faculty, and staff give testimony on the encampment, arrests, and surrounding events. Eric Alexander, chair of the Board of Trustees, yells at a Black student to “back the fuck up.”

May 6, 2024: Full-time faculty vote to censure Bernhardt. Ninety percent call for increasing faculty participation in governing Emerson.

June 18, 2024: President announces impending layoffs in response to an enrollment shortfall, placing blame on protestors.

July 2024: Students are notified of disciplinary charges placed against them for political activism the previous Spring.

Aug. 12, 2024: Anna Feder, staff member who documented the  arrests in April, is terminated. The Bright Lights series is closed after a successful season. (The Emerson Staff Union later files a grievance.)

August 13, 2024: Two weeks prior to the start of the academic semester, President Bernhardt publicly announces the elimination of 10 staff positions “to help us reduce our necessary cost savings”.  Unrevealed until October 26 in The Boston Globe, the Board of Directors has purchased a $5.25 million luxury condo for Bernhardt.

August 2024: Faculty members who teach courses about Palestine are summoned by the Office of Equal Opportunity (formerly Title IX office) to what is later described as “educational meetings.”

Aug. 23, 2024: Emerson’s administration rolls out the most restrictive protest and discipline policy in Emerson’s history before the semester starts.

Before school starts: White boards are removed from all dorms.

October 2024: Two staff members are disciplined for leafleting on their personal break time. A pro-Palestine rally that begins outside the Israeli Consulate continues into Boylston Place. In the following weeks, students are summoned to investigatory meetings about their alleged participation.

Nov. 20, 2024: Dean of Student Life issues an “interim” amendment to the “interim” protest policy allowing student filmmakers to post flyers on community boards.