Carleton’s Board of Governors will discuss divestment requests in an upcoming closed meeting, and President Roseann Runte has warned any further protests or disruptions could result in penalties including suspension of privileges or loss of academic status.
In an email to all students April 4, Runte said board members felt harassed and threatened by the over 200 students who gathered at a March 29 board meeting in support of Students Against Israeli Apartheid’s divestment campaign.
“This must not occur again,” Runte said in her email. “Those who have said they will interrupt meetings until they have their way are participating in inappropriate bullying tactics.”
The March 29 meeting was cancelled due to protesters, who are demanding the board remove several million dollars of its pension fund from companies SAIA argues is linked to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“We have the right to be there and publicly discuss and have a dialogue with our board members,” said SAIA member Yafa Jarrar.
The cancelled meeting was held via conference call April 4 in order to avoid further disruption given the nature of discussions, which included raising operating and ancillary budgets.
“God knows we would like to have it face-to-face . . . but given the circumstances, this is the best we could do,” said board chair Gisèle Sampson-Verrault.
A number of issues, including SAIA’s divestment request, will be held at the next meeting, in a closed session, Sampson-Verrault announced at the beginning of the conference call.
Christopher Infantry, the undergraduate representative on the board, said the different format “stifled debate.”
Infantry pressed for the issue to be addressed despite its exclusion from the agenda, stressing that since a portion of tuition fees are invested in the pension fund, students should have a say.
“I think if the university actually allows students to have a voice, if certain motions weren’t taken out of the agenda that were put forward in a proper and structural manner then we wouldn’t have to resort to a conference call,” Infantry. “We wouldn’t have students protesting meetings and blocking entrance.”
Infantry, who is also the current Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (student life), said he felt critical debate was stifled by the format of the meeting.
“I think it is very, very critical to have this in an open discussion since it does involve the Carleton community at large,” he said.
Although the meeting was open to anyone to call in, Infantry said the format made it difficult to have the necessary discussion.
“[Runte’s] analysis of the situation as bullying is quite misleading,” Jarrar said, adding that Runte’s statement was a form of bullying aimed at suppressing student’s freedom of speech.
According to a statement on SAIA's website, the March 29 rally was a significant step towards Carleton's divestment in companies, which SAIA said are complicit in war crimes.
The university administration’s attempts to muzzle the long list of divestment campaign endorsers deeply backfired, according to the statement.
Jarrar said she and fellow SAIA members have been approached by fellow students who are outraged by Runte’s statement.
“We are being threatened with non-academic punishments which may lead to us being expelled because we are standing up for a cause and we are expressing ourselves and raising our voices,” Jarrar said.
SAIA's movement to divest from companies violating international law in occupied Palestine will only grow stronger until their demands are met, according to the statement.
“When democracy is being attacked and it’s being condemned by higher authority figures, our responsibility as students and as members of this community is to go back and say no,” Jarrar said. “We are going to reclaim this democracy.”