By Gwen Frost
Three student activists are being penalized by the university for protesting Jonathan Zimmerman’s presentation on free speech.
The Office of Student Life sent out emails to the Emma Bigongiari, Ignacio Perez and Lizzy (who asked that only their first name be used) on Monday, notifying them that a complaint had been filed due to their alleged violation of Western’s Student Conduct Code. The three students were asked to review the conduct code, directed to section “516-21-070 Disruptive Behavior,” which was outlined as “behavior that substantially disrupts, disturbs, or interferes with the ability of students to learn or university officials to perform their assigned duties is a violation of the code.”
The email assured that the student conduct system existed “to ensure that students act in a manner consistent with high standards of scholarship and behavior, and to maintain the safety and well-being of all members of the university community.”
The email also indicated that the complaint filed against the students cited the Western Front article that was published Dec. 2, the day after the Friday protest. The article included four names and a video and wrote that Zimmerman was delayed by “about 20 minutes” by the protest.
The students were asked to attend meetings at the end of the week to discuss the conduct code and the protest. They instead responded with a statement entitled “A Statement from the WWU Special Snowflakes,” and did not attend the meetings to review or discuss the punishment.
“By refusing to meet, we are saying that it’s not ok to persecute students for critically assessing information the institution is attempting to spread and asserting our first amendment right to speak out against hate speech,” Perez said.
The statement from the “snowflakes” can be found here.
Bigongiari and Lizzy are members of the club WWU Students for Anti-Racist Action.
“Hatred and bigotry are not welcome at our school,” Bigongiari said. “We were within our rights.We are not convinced that we violated the student conduct code.”
Bigongiari said she fears that this penalizing might set a dangerous precedent. She asked people to “think about the broader implications of Western doling out penalties to student activists and organizers.”
“It is concerning to me that WWU seems to be heading in the direction of increasingly cracking down on students rights to speak up and to organize,” she said.
In the statement, the students further questioned Western’s priorities by mentioning how the university handles sexual assault on campus and whether or not they are promoting the safety of students of all identities .
“I am really disappointed that the Office of Student Life has failed to adequately address campus sexual violence yet they were able to send us an email about our alleged violation of the code within less than one business day,” Bigongiari said.
In response to the event, the WWU Students for Anti-Racist Action posted a call to action on their Facebook page.
Western’s director of Communications and Marketing Paul Cocke said he could not comment due to student privacy.
AS Review Editor-in-Chief Erasmus Baxter did not edit this story due to a personal relationship with one of the students facing disciplinary action.