Student protesters who block board members from attending meetings could face fines or be barred from campus, Carleton University president Roseann O’ Reilly Runte says.
In an e-mail sent to members of the university community on Monday, Runte took issue with a noisy March 29 protest that forced the board of governors to cancel its meeting because some governors couldn’t get through the crowd. The protesters, led by campus groups Students Against Israeli Apartheid and the Graduate Students’ Association, were upset the board would not discuss a studentled motion calling on the university to divest funds from companies that do business with Israel and had also taken steps to limit the number of students attending the meeting.
“This must not occur again,” Runte’s e-mail said. “Those who have said they will interrupt meetings until they have their way are participating in inappropriate bullying tactics.” In the future, people preventing access or refusing to follow guidelines set by campus security will be charged under Carleton’s student code with a non-academic offence. Penalties may include suspension of privileges, including access to the campus, a monetary fine or loss of academic status, the e-mail said.
A spokeswoman for Students Against Israeli Apartheid, Reem Buhaisi, said last week that students were “going to continue to have our voices heard and show the administration and the board of governors that they can no longer repress student activism” until the university divests from four companies.
Runte’s e-mail said the university had a fair system of governance, with students represented on the board of governors, the faculty senate and various faculty councils.
“It is not the privilege of any group to threaten to stop the work of the university. If any individual or group does not like the result of the serious deliberations of these bodies, there remains the right to make this point of view known in a respectful and peaceful fashion,” the e-mail said.