The University of Utah Police — with backup from four state and local police departments — forcefully disbanded what had been a peaceful pro-Palestine rally at the University of Utah last week. The use of riot gear, crowd-control munitions, mobile surveillance units and drones by police in conjunction with these arrests, is deeply concerning. We call for an immediate investigation of these tactics and verification of their compliance with current laws. But these tactics highlight issues far greater than the current debate on campus.
We are faculty with lived experience in the Middle East and other parts of the world where human freedoms are less valued and protected than in the United States. Authoritarian regimes use various methods to preclude and expunge dissent in academic institutions. Such tactics include punishing and purging students and staff for expressing contrary political views, surveilling community members and altering academic curricula to enforce a particular ideology.
With the rise of AI and the COVID-19 pandemic, our lives are increasingly surveilled. Work, now untethered from traditional offices, brings surveillance software and devices into our private homes. Some employers demand constant access to devices and data to monitor productivity and ensure security, granting organizations exceptional power through advanced surveillance technology.
Sadly, the technologically-mediated surveillance was on full display at the University of Utah last week when the president summoned the police to campus, who then deployed advanced mobile camera surveillance stations as well as multiple drones to put down what had been a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest by university students and faculty. This surveillance of Utahns practicing their cherished First Amendment rights to dissent and peaceful protest on the campus of a flagship state institution of higher education should give pause to all who value their individual liberties.
Student protesters first arrived on campus on the afternoon of April 29. Chanting and singing, they erected tents on the lawn of Presidents’ Circle, an area recently designated for student camping. Within just a few hours, more than 100 police officers clad in full riot gear moved in, arresting 19 protesters and firing kinetic-impact projectiles to subdue protesters. Based on a statement by a university spokesperson, one might imagine these munitions to be something like Nerf balls, but such “non-lethal” weapons are meant to cause blunt trauma, pain and intimidation. They have the potential to cause permanent injury, and indeed, at least one protester was injured by this use of force.
On April 30, University of Utah police officers surrounded and arrested one of the senior members of the student protestors at the onset of a protest. Another protest leader was arrested in front of the Huntsman Center during the graduation ceremonies. The targeted arrests of protest leaders, possibly enabled by digital surveillance, seem intended to cripple the movement’s ability to express their ideas. In just 24 hours, our university exhibited one of the most swift and extreme reactions to a peaceful student protest in the nation.
These assaults on student expression align with broader trends undermining academic freedom at the University of Utah. In the recent legislative session, Utah lawmakers passed, and the governor signed, HB438 and SB192. These laws weaken tenure and the faculty’s role in the shared governance of the university, two pillars of higher education that protect faculty from dismissal for teaching controversial topics and ensure educational programs are not unduly influenced by political considerations. HB261, another recent law, rolls back diversity initiatives in public education. While Utah’s anti-DEI law does not cover academic research or course materials like some other states’ bans, it risks chilling classroom discussion and faculty research on racism, sexism and other forms of oppression. Under the guise of protecting free speech, new rules were adopted last fall requiring university and college leaders to remain neutral on hot-button issues.
All of these measures sailed through without robust pushback from the university. And they are forcing Utah’s flagship higher-education institution to comply with a national ideologically-driven agenda that seeks to purge unpopular political views from public universities. The common approach by our state and university leadership to the student protesters and the faculty should raise red flags for anyone concerned with the integrity — and national reputation — of our state’s premier institution of higher education.
Of course, student protest rights and faculty academic freedom are not unlimited. Supreme Court precedent allows universities to impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on protests as long as they are content-neutral, serve a significant governmental interest and the university offers ample alternative communication channels. Thus, for example, a university may limit expression that substantially disrupts classes or university functions, involves the destruction of property, obstructs access to campus buildings, incites immediate illegal activity, threatens physical harm or meets the legal definition of harassment. Similarly, academic freedom does not protect incompetence, harassment or ethics violations by faculty. But these are meant to be narrow exceptions, and none of the risks or concerns they cover have been present at the University of Utah, certainly not at a level that would justify the extreme actions by our state and university leaders.
The University of Utah must do better. It must defend the principles of free expression and academic freedom so essential to the mission of higher education, our university’s national reputation and democracy itself.
(Photo courtesy of Laura Kessler) Laura Kessler
Laura Kessler is a professor of law whose research has examined human and civil rights violations in Israel. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Utah.
(Photo courtesy of Saveez Saffarian) Saveez Saffarian
Saveez Saffarian is a professor of physics whose research utilizes advanced imaging technologies and who partly grew up in Iran. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Utah.
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