Purdue administration has begun threatening “disciplinary proceedings” against protesters on Memorial Mall as a relatively quiet protest in support of Palestine is increasingly coming to head with the university.
While most of campus slept at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, leaders of the “Purdue Liberation Zone” received an email accusing them of violating university policy, in which Associate Dean of Students Jeffrrey Stefancic accused the protesters of violating university “camping” policies and constructing buildings on the mall without approval.
“At this time, you should consider this an informal warning,” Stefancic wrote in the email.
Until now, the “Purdue Liberation Zone,” the nearly week-long protest in support of Palestine on Memorial Mall that has joined dozens of similar campus movements nationwide, has seen little resistance from the university or police since it began Thursday.
But as the protesters have increasingly expanded the encampment, pitching tents and constructing shelters out of wood, Purdue administrators are threatening disciplinary retaliation.
“This rule is not merely a reasonable regulation to ensure the University complies with building and fire codes, but it also exists for individual safety reasons, since the drilling of stakes into the ground, for example, runs the risk of a utility line rupture that can be extremely hazardous to demonstrators and passers-by alike,” Stefancic said in the email. “This structure continues to be in violation of University policy and must be disassembled.”
In the email, Stefancic warned protesters they were in danger of discipline if they didn’t tear down the wooden structures and vacate Memorial Mall by 8 a.m. on Monday.
“We were (sent the email) when there were minimal members here, so to get it done by 8 a.m. is very unfeasible,” Raisa Deotale, co-chair of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, said at 2 a.m.
As of 11:30 a.m., the encampment is still based on Memorial Mall and the structures still stand.
Johnny Hazboun, president of SJP, said the group has no intention of breaking down the tents and rolling up the tarps until they were told otherwise, which he said has happened every night since the encampment began.
“They always come with, I don't (want to) say empty threats, but it's always like, 'Oh, you have to do this, or we have to get warnings, … oh, suspensions, or this, or that,’” he said.
Hazboun and other “Liberation Zone” organizers said Purdue has been difficult to comply with.
The email appears to have been sent to several leaders of the organizations leading the protest, including Deotale and the presidents of YDSA and Students for Justice in Palestine.
In an email response to Stenfancic, YDSA member Ishan Tripathi told the administrator Memorial Mall was “public property” and that protesters had a right to demonstrate there.
According to Purdue’s website, Memorial Mall is defined as a “public area,” which is defined as “University Facilities open to orderly unsupervised access by faculty, staff, students and visitors, such as streets, sidewalks, lawn areas, malls and designated portions of some University buildings and recreation areas during regular building hours.”
Purdue’s “use of facilities” policy prohibits “athletic contests, food service, fires, camping, driving or parking of motor vehicles, or use of sound amplification equipment" unless in designated areas or with prior approval from university administration.
But the validity of the encampment on Memorial Mall is vague, coming from the term “camping” which university administrators have cited as the protesters' main violation. This term does not appear to be described any further in Purdue's official policy.
According to Purdue, public areas are “University Facilities open to orderly unsupervised access by faculty, staff, students and visitors, such as streets, sidewalks, lawn areas, malls and designated portions of some University buildings and recreation areas during regular building hours.”
Stefancic was unavailable to answer an Exponent request for comment, and a Purdue spokesperson did not immediately respond to emailed questions.
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