PARENTS OF THOSE ARRESTED AT INAUGURATION REMAIN OUTRAGED

On March 22, 2024, 13 students were arrested outside of President Jay Bernhardt’s inauguration. Discipline News has been in contact with two parents who offered their reflections on the arrests of their children. Given the current threats by the Trump Administration against pro-Palestinian activists and retaliatory measures by ICE against protesters, we will not include their full names but refer to these parents as VM and CJ. 

Both parents described feeling that their children were betrayed by the school's administration. VM writes,”we had entrusted [Emerson] with our daughter’s education, safety and well-being, and they had not only failed to protect her, but had baited her, and the other 12 students, into the arrest.” She explains that the day before the arrests, Bernhardt sent a message to the Emerson community affirming students’ right to demonstrate ‘immediately outside buildings and venues.’ The students respected those boundaries and kept their demonstration outside, “only to be met with law enforcement,” said VM. She adds that “ECPD then went on to actively solicit complaints of public disturbance from passersby…for the formal legal charges that grounded their arrest.”

STUDENT CHARGED FOR POLITICAL ACTION, UNABLE TO APPEAL

In late 2023, Emerson’s Community Standards Office began charging students for engaging in political action. In the summer of 2024, the Office of Equal Opportunity followed with their own set of charges against pro-Palestinian activists at Emerson. As members of the Emerson community began to scrutinize these discipline processes, many were reassured that both OEO and Community Standards follow procedures that are thorough and fair, and that students (and others) are able to appeal any decision made.

Some students who faced charges from both offices for activities related to Palestine have related testimonies that paint a different picture.

Student X (asked not to be named) has been ‘found responsible’ by OEO and immediately asked to appeal the process because they felt it was biased. Sonia Jurado, the associate vice president who runs the OEO office, responded that disagreeing with the outcome is not a basis to appeal. There are only two grounds to appeal: procedural error or new information. The student added that they don’t know anyone who was able to appeal, “everything they’re doing fits a process that they set up and policies they created, so you can’t really make a case.”

EDITORIAL: THE INVISIBLE MAN

“While the College understands the Faculty Assembly’s interest in this matter, disciplinary procedures and conduct findings fall outside the Assembly’s authority; hence, no changes will be made to any policies or disciplinary actions resulting from this vote.”

So declared Jay Bernhardt in an email on Feb. 26.  It’s just one example of presidential proclamations this past year making it amply clear that Jay regards “the College” as excluding the students, faculty, and staff; “the College,” to him, is only the administration and Board of Trustees.  Despite the existence of a so-called Shared-Governance Committee, and the launching of the Emerson Together initiative, however well-intentioned, if we are to learn anything from the events of the past academic year it is that Jay Bernhardt’s administrative philosophy is antithetical to true community participation and democratic principles.  As evinced by the outcry heard across campus over the recent student Resident Assistant  firings weeks before the semester’s end, the administration seems unperturbed by the mounting anger such actions spur.

A LOOK BACK: HOW EMERSON BECAME A SILENT AND FEARFUL CAMPUS

The Emerson College administration has deployed an arsenal of tactics to surveil and prosecute students, staff and faculty. College officials have trained powerful cameras from rooftops, have pored over countless surveillance videos, traced the entry taps of students into buildings, posted administrators to try to identify protesters, and pressured students to betray others, according to interviews with those caught in the crackdown.

They have fired student Resident Assistants for allegedly participating in non-violent protests, and more firings are in the works. They have disciplined other students, threatening their college jobs, graduation activities, and moved against staff and faculty.

Now it is revealed that an assistant professor, well known to the administration for his incendiary claims and disruptive accusations, has boasted to a private Facebook group of having taken photos of demonstrating students and faculty, photos that he said were sent to authorities to be used for punishment. He has acted as a self-appointed spy, unrestrained by and with the administration’s apparent knowledge.