During the 2023-2024 academic year, the University of Pittsburgh reinforced its unwavering support for the First Amendment right to free speech. They have titled this academic year “The Year of Discourse and Dialogue,” and hope to “harness the power of different perspectives and perceptions to enrich the campus community.”
Our year of discourse and dialogue has started on a high note. At the end of the spring 2023 semester, Pitt's Republican Club invited a known transphobe to campus to speak and debate the legitimacy of transgender people and their right to exist. Conservative political commentator and issue denier Michael Knowles is best known for saying, “Transgenderism must be eradicated.”
What does eradicate mean other than to harm, eradicate, or kill? Students at the University of Pittsburgh took to the streets to protest his appearance and to support transgender identity on campus. Protesters burned photos of Knowles, and protesters who subsequently charged set off fireworks and smoke bombs. Participants spoke out against the debate, which took place inside the O'Hara Student Center, and condemned the university for allowing such a harmful figure onto campus. Brad Porambo, who debated Knowles about transgender identity, claims that although he is a conservative, he felt unsafe.
I wonder how their discussion of whether transgender people exist and deserve rights made their transgender peers on campus feel. Did they feel safe?
When asked why the university would allow an on-campus club to invite such a heinous speaker to mock the lives of trans students, Pitt acknowledged that the discussion on campus had been “toxic and harmful,” but ultimately, little had happened that they could have done.
Thus we begin a year of speech and dialogue in the wake of a university whose political stance on free speech has been made abundantly clear. They will encourage people to protest as much as they will encourage people to speak. Or will they?
In response to an Oct. 7 attack by the militant Hamas group that left 1,200 people dead, Israel reversed course and launched a war against the Palestinian people, many of whom had little to do with Hamas. In the seven months since the first Israeli attack, some 34,535 Palestinians have been killed, and an estimated 10,000 bodies remain beneath the rubble of buildings.
Protests have erupted around the world over the past seven months, with many calling for a ceasefire and the divestment of capital from Israeli institutions. College students across the country, including our own, are violently protesting on behalf of Palestine and pleading with President Joe Biden and their universities to withdraw from such institutions.
Columbia University, an Ivy League institution famous for its many civil rights leaders among its alumni, was one of the first to arrest students for their protests in encampments. On April 30, more than 300 protesters, many of them students, were violently arrested, pepper-sprayed and mace-smeared, and medical treatment withheld from their injured peers. Many were denied food and water in the cells where the protesters were being held. Their protests and the subsequent response by the university and the New York Police Department sparked outrage across the nation, leading to the formation of encampments on various campuses, including our own.
While the University of Pittsburgh lags behind these damning numbers, the presence of police on campus during our camp and subsequent protests and rallies shows that abuses of police power and peaceful demonstrations are eerily similar to Vietnam. It paints a vague picture of things eerily worse, reminiscent of the war years.
Students gathered at Schenley Plaza the week of April 21 to set up a Gaza solidarity encampment. The following Sunday, April 28, Pitt's graduation day, protesters at the encampment gathered an even larger crowd for one final rally. Police responded to deal with the growing numbers. A video can be seen on Instagram of a Pitt police officer shoving a student on the cathedral lawn and shoving two protesters before making arrests.
Asked for comment on the incident, university spokesperson Chuck Finder said, “The University of Pittsburgh recognizes the right of community members to participate in peaceful and orderly demonstrations and continues to address the rights and responsibilities of community members.'' “We strive to provide education that is relevant to students.”
“Throughout the course of events that week, Pitt administration communicated multiple times with demonstrators about expectations related to university policies. The demonstration took place primarily off-campus at nearby Schenley Plaza, but moved onto University of Pittsburgh grounds for several hours on Sunday, April 28. The situation was closely monitored and two individuals who did not comply with police officers' demands were detained and arrested,” Finder said.
University officials continue to emphasize their commitment to free speech, as demonstrated in their response to the Michael Knowles debate in Spring 2023. However, this stance is contradictory when compared to their response to the current student protests advocating for Palestinian rights and freedoms. On the one hand, the University of Pittsburgh permits inflammatory rhetoric under the guise of free speech, and on the other, responds to peaceful demonstrations with a heavy police presence. This contradiction raises questions about the university's true commitment to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all students, especially given the violence and actions shown by police officers against students on April 28.
This is reminiscent of the tragic events at Kent State, where a student movement was violently suppressed during the Vietnam War era, leaving four students dead and nine injured. The horror of police and military intervention against peaceful protests should have taught us valuable lessons about the importance of protecting the rights of demonstrators and the dangers of excessive force. However, history appears in danger of repeating itself as universities potentially violate student safety and rights under the guise of maintaining order.
It is time to open the history books and see the horror of police and government intervention in student protests for human rights. We must fight this injustice under the pretext that the University supports freedom of speech. The University of Pittsburgh began our great Year of Dialogue and Conversation with the footprints of Nowruz still fresh, and ended it with the violent arrest of a student who condemned the University of Pittsburgh's direct investment and involvement in the genocide of Palestinians. The hypocrisy of our own university is clear.
Maybe we should stop calling the police on peaceful protesters who are fighting for human rights and to end the genocide of an entire people. If history has taught us anything, it's that involving the police in these matters never ends well, and hypocrisy puts us on the wrong side of history.
Livia LaMarca is an assistant editor on the Opinion Desk who is nostalgic for the Oxford comma. She writes primarily about American political discourse, American pop culture, and social movements. To share your own opinion, email lll60@pitt.edu.
