ARREST BY MASKED AGENTS SPARKS BOSTON PROTESTS

Protests and pushbacks erupted at Emerson and elsewhere around Boston last week as the severity of the Trump crackdown on free speech at college campuses emerged.

Emerson’s Students for Justice in Palestine staged demonstrations last Monday and more demonstrators staged a picket Tuesday morning in front of the Visitor’s Center, where college officials are recruiting potential freshmen for the next academic year. Those followed a March 20 action in which students briefly blocked traffic at Boylston and Tremont streets.

Given the gap between the administration’s alleged facts and reality, this issue of DISCIPLINE NEWS is dedicated to providing the community with a detailed understanding of the assertions made. Students, staff, and faculty directly targeted by the administration have provided first-hand accounts of their experiences. FOIA requests also provided further evidence. Below is our summarized account of each incident…

CRACKDOWN HERE CONTINUES, MORE STUDENTS DISCIPLINED

The Bernhardt administration has denied appeals of disciplinary actions that followed a modest demonstration in front of the Ansin Building on Feb. 21 , in which student demonstrators picketed on Tremont Street and pasted the building facade with easily removed stickers showing the renewed demands of the Students for Justice in Palestine.

Disciplinary letters were sent out sporadically in the weeks that followed, sentencing students to academic probation and fines of up to $150. According to individuals from this group who have spoken with us, and who will remain anonymous, their appeals to those disciplinary actions were denied. They have shared with us accounts of the ways in which they were targeted and charged, although certain details about their hearings will not be revealed, in order to protect their identity…

TRUMP WANTS NAMES OF PROTESTERS FROM SOME COLLEGES

The Trump Administration is demanding the names and ethnicity of protesters from some colleges, raising new questions of whether Emerson College’s continuing disciplinary crackdown will expose international students to arrest or deportation.

Trump appointees have sent letters to at least five colleges demanding lists of all students who were notified of potential violations of school policies or who have been accused or punished for harassment of others “on the basis of their Jewish ancestry,” according to a report in the March 25 Washington Post. The letters demanded the students’ names and “national origin/ ethnicity/shared ancestry.”

Emerson College administrators have not admitted to receiving such a request. Emerson is on a list of 60 colleges and universities that have been warned...