Around 100 students protested on campus against the Trump administration’s compact and the University’s consolidation plans on Friday, culminating in a short sit-in in the UT Tower.
Demonstrators marched around the Tower, timing their protest to coincide with UT’s Ring Day ceremony on the Main Mall. After the march, the group gathered on the West Mall while 14 students entered the Tower and ascended to Provost William Inboden’s office, where they staged a brief sit-in demanding a meeting with University leadership.
No arrests were made, nor were citations issued by the UT Police Department immediately following the sit-in.
“The administration has an obligation to us as students — the people paying to go here — to be public with their actions, with what they are doing, with their policies … and they have refused to do so,” history junior Parker Oehler said.
The Trump administration’s compact, sent to nine institutions in October, would give universities access to federal funding in exchange for agreeing to certain terms, such as limiting international student enrollment, promoting equality in student admissions and faculty hiring and protecting a “broad spectrum” of views on campus. Seven institutions have already rejected the compact. UT is the only school not to announce a decision, but it has a Nov. 21 deadline.
Additionally, the students protested against the University’s plans to consolidate smaller departments in the College of Liberal Arts. In an Oct. 23 email, COLA announced it created an internal committee to provide input on this process. Although the email did not say which departments are up for consolidation, the committee includes representatives from ethnic studies and area studies.
Áine McGehee Marley, an African and African Diaspora studies graduate student who attended the protest, said taking classes about racial capitalism as an undergraduate inspired her to pursue a Ph.D. McGehee Marley said she is alarmed that her department could potentially face consolidation.
“This is going to be really far reaching, and is just the first step of many,” McGehee Marley said.
Following the march, 14 students, including members of Students for a Democratic Society’s leadership, staged a sit-in in the office of Susan Lambert, the assistant to Executive Vice President and Provost Inboden. The students demanded a meeting with University leadership, which they said they’ve been trying to schedule through traditional channels for months without success.
UTPD escorted Lambert from the office, which the students were ordered to leave shortly after by Kelly Soucy, the Associate Dean of Students. With around a dozen UTPD officers in and around the office, 12 of the 14 students left the tower, while two — organizer Daniel Ramirez, a computer science sophomore, and McGehee Marley — met with Soucy outside of the Provost’s office to schedule a meeting with senior University leadership.
According to McGehee Marley, Soucy said she would schedule a meeting between the students and senior leadership when asking the protesters to vacate the Provost’s office, but backtracked when Ramirez and McGehee Marley met with her outside of the office.
“We just talked to senior leadership — we are not able to confirm a meeting at this time,” Soucy told Ramirez and McGehee Marley. “If you’re wanting to continue to express your activity, you need to be out of the main building.”
Ramirez and McGehee Marley expressed dismay at the decision after exiting the Tower, saying they felt betrayed by leadership’s meetings with leaders of organizations like Longhorns for Israel earlier this year.
“From our perspective, it feels like you just lied to us,” McGehee Marley said to Soucy. “You said you would promise to (make this meeting) happen.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to better reflect Kelly Soucy’s title at the University. Although not incorrect, Soucy has a dual role as the Associate Dean of Students and a Deputy Title IX Coordinator. The Texan regrets this error.
