Last Wednesday, UBC President Santa Ono tweeted a statement assuring prospective students that their applications to UBC will not be affected by their engagement in peaceful demonstrations.
“We consider such involvement to be a core freedom of citizens of democratic nations,” he said.
The University of British Columbia will not consider prospective students’ engagement in peaceful demonstrations in admission decisions. We consider such involvement to be a core freedom of citizens of democratic nations.
— Santa J. Ono (@ubcprez) March 14, 2018
Ono wrote the tweet on the same day that thousands of high school students across the US staged a nation-wide walkout to advocate for tougher gun control laws. The protests were a response to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, in which 17 people were killed and several others injured.
After some school districts in the US threatened to punish high school students with suspensions if they participated in the walkout, many colleges and universities announced that students’ applications will not be compromised if they choose to engage in peaceful protest.
Here at @Yale, we are proud to support all students for participating in peaceful walkouts for gun control or other causes, and we will not rescind admissions decisions for students who do so regardless of any school’s disciplinary policy. Read more here:https://t.co/dX863n8v1K pic.twitter.com/Zixpoj3L1P
— Yale Admissions (@YaleUGA) February 24, 2018
Applicants to Brown: Expect a socially conscious, intellectually independent campus where freedom of expression is fundamentally important. You can be assured that peaceful, responsible protests against gun violence will not negatively impact decisions on admission to Brown.
— Brown Admission (@BrownUAdmission) February 23, 2018
Dartmouth supports active citizenship and applauds students’ expression of their beliefs. pic.twitter.com/TlcKcQIxQ1
— Dartmouth (@dartmouth) February 23, 2018
According to Open Culture, over 175 post-secondary institutions in the US have made statements such as these.
However, in a written statement sent to The Ubyssey, Ono said that his tweet will not be followed by any additional action from the university.
“This was a statement to make it clear that peaceful protest by prospective UBC students regarding any matter (in this case, gun control) would not adversely influence their admission to UBC,” he said.
“Similar statements were made by other institutions when it became clear that some students would be disciplined for their involvement in the peaceful protest. As we receive many applications from students studying in the US, I wanted it to be clear that their admission to UBC would not be negatively impacted by their activism.”
Leslie Dickson, associate director of UBC Public Affairs, framed the matter similarly.
“Santa Ono is quite active on social media and frequently engages on topics that are being discussed on a given day on platforms like Twitter,” she said in an emailed statement. “So when he tweeted, he was just engaging in the conversation on social media on this topic and not making any announcement on behalf of UBC.”
While most of the replies to Ono’s tweet were positive, professor of anthropology and Board of Governors member Charles Menzies critiqued its ambiguous use of the word “peaceful,” arguing that it can be hard to tell who provoked a violent incident in a protest that turned violent.
That is very good, but should be amended to remove the word "peaceful," as it is very difficult to ascertain responsibility in a protest as to whether disruption was provoked by undercover police, external agitatores, or a demonstrator, for example.
— charlesmenzies (@charlesmenzies) March 14, 2018
Furthermore, in many regimes, the state declares all protest definitionally non-peaceful irrespective of whether or not there is overt violence (including some states in the US).
— charlesmenzies (@charlesmenzies) March 14, 2018
Philosophy professor Dr. Alan Richardson also joined in the thread to offer up the example of the 1997 APEC protests at UBC, where protestors speaking out against globalization were pepper-sprayed and arrested by the police. An APEC report concluded that the RCMP used excessive force, but the protestors received charges nonetheless.
an example to think with: https://t.co/83SOwcmj1F
— Alan Richardson (@arichardson_phi) March 14, 2018
Here is a situation that in the lead up the University targeted student protesters who were simply painting lines on campus and had them charged for trespass and vandalism (yet the engineers cairn . ...).
— charlesmenzies (@charlesmenzies) March 14, 2018
Menzies also pondered how Ono’s statement would apply to students from white power groups engaging in protests against people of colour.
But then, what it the student is a member of a white power group engaged in 'peaceful' protest against people of colour? And perhaps they have participated in minutemen patrols along the Arizona/Mexico border - perhaps that should be taken into account.
— charlesmenzies (@charlesmenzies) March 14, 2018
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