From the moment University of Mary Washington sociology professor Nora Kim learned that nine students were arrested on campus Saturday and charged with trespassing after re-erecting an encampment during a nonviolent protest in support of Palestine, she believed police intervention was unwarranted.
Kim said that while instructing students she explains to them that they should get involved with causes they are passionate about.
Kim helped organize a flower protest — a peaceful and silent demonstration — in support of students’ rights to protest Tuesday morning on campus outside of George Washington Hall.
Approximately 30 students and faculty members marched to George Washington Hall and placed flowers by the statue of civil rights activist James Farmer, who was a history professor at UMW from 1985-98 before he died in 1999.
UMW students and faculty placed flowers at the base of the James Farmer statue to protest the arrest of UMW students during their peaceful protest on Saturday evening.
Forty-seven faculty members allowed protest organizers to place their names on a poster board at the statue that read, “We support our students’ right to protest.”
Kim said, in her view, higher education is meant to encourage students to care about issues bigger than themselves. She said that is part of the legacy of UMW, which highlights Farmer’s efforts with the 1961 Freedom Rides and his co-founding of the Congress of Racial Equality.
“When we teach, that is the message we give to our students — stand up for what is right and what is just,” Kim said. “Our students were doing exactly the thing that they are taught, which is to exercise their freedom of speech and stand up for people who do not necessarily have the resources to voice their grievances.”
While Kim and other professors demonstrated outside, 19 students were inside George Washington Hall sharing their concerns with university Provost Tim O’Donnell.
O’Donnell listened intently, but remained mum, only saying, “I don’t think I’m in a position to speak for the institution” and “I’m not the president.”
UMW President Troy Paino did meet with a group of students several hours later, providing his first public statements on last weekend’s events aside from a campus-wide email sent late Saturday night.
After they were made aware of the protest Friday, UMW officials disseminated guidelines on expressive activity that stated encampments are prohibited. In the school’s expressive activity policy adopted in 2017 and reviewed every two years, there is no mention of encampments.
One student told O’Donnell that the arrests were “cowardly” and makes them ashamed to attend the university.
“[The protesters] have the one last bit of empathy in humanity that lacks in a lot of people in this entire world, and you mistreat the people who have that last bit of hope that maybe this world could change, maybe we can make a difference by demonstrating, by protesting, by using the one thing we have,” the student said.
UMW senior Devin Schwers also cited Farmer in his speech to O’Donnell and his fellow students. Schwers noted that as he spoke, two of those arrested at UMW were being arraigned on charges of trespassing at Fredericksburg General District Court.
Schwers went on to cite reports that pro-Palestine protesters at Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University were also arrested.
Schwers called for transparency from UMW leadership regarding how the order to make arrests originated, alleging it came from Gov. Glenn Youngkin before adding that external pressure does not excuse any actions by the UMW administration, including Paino.
Kim said the university’s Executive Council, which is the governing body for faculty, plans to formally demand an explanation from the administration on why the arrests occurred.
“I say this loud and clear: UMW admin, you are complicit in following the orders of a corrupt administration that is hellbent on irradiating students’ rights to free speech,” Schwers said. “For a university that espouses the values and principles that the legendary Dr. James Farmer lived his life in support, I can’t help but feel lied to and cheated as a student. I have no hesitancy in saying Dr. Farmer is ashamed of the actions taken by the University of Mary Washington this past weekend.”
Youngkin said on CNN Sunday that peaceful demonstrations “are at the heart of the First Amendment” and must be protected. He added, however, that he worked with Attorney General Jason Miyares and law enforcement officials at the state, local and campus levels to ensure the protests remained peaceful.
“We’re not going to have encampments and tents put up … We’re not going to have the kinds of hate speech and intimidation that we’ve seen across the country in Virginia,” Youngkin said.
In a post on the social media platform ‘X,’ Youngkin did not admit to ordering arrests across state universities but showed support for the efforts of law enforcement. He said that after repeated warnings and refusal to disperse, “law enforcement must protect Virginians.”
“My administration will continue to fully support campus, local and state law enforcement and university leadership to keep our campuses safe,” Youngkin said. “Across the Commonwealth, we’ve seen student and significant non-student participants throw projectiles at law enforcement, violate the policies of our colleges and universities, obstruct and disrupt student life and endanger public safety.”
One response to Youngkin’s post stated that, during a three-minute video of the UMW protest, a dozen kids were sitting on the edge of campus singing when they were approached by police.
Political Science and International Affairs Professor Ranjit Singh, who is also a UMW alumnus, said he was “shocked and deeply disappointed” by the arrests because the demonstration was peaceful. Singh said he’s heard from “droves” of faculty members who feel the same way.
Singh visited the encampment and said he saw no signs of hate speech, antisemitism or “significant inconvenience” for anyone. He said fewer than 20 people gathered peacefully in the rain, and that those who defied orders to leave were hauled away in zip ties.
“To remind those who chose to call the police, peaceful public protest is a right,” Singh said. “And protesting a foreign government’s policies and U.S. support for those policies is also a right. Right now, throughout the country, we see Americans of all faiths and traditions exercising this right, as their consciences tell them they must.”
