Seven people at Johns Hopkins University have been arrested after chaining themselves to the main administration building on campus on May 1 as a form of protest against campus police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
While students have been demonstrating since April, their latest stunt of chaining doors shut made the administrative building unsafe for use and impossible for administrators to work there.
With students taking full control of Garland Hall, services such as financial aid, disability, academic advising, and international services were moved to a different building.
The protesters want a meeting with the university president but he refuses to meet until they leave the building.
In a letter to students and faculty on Friday, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels declared that the student protest had reached an “untenable” position.
The protest is over Johns Hopkins’ recent decision to hire a private police force for the campus, which was approved by the Maryland General Assembly, and the university’s existing $1.5 million contracts with ICE. They are also demanding that the university recognize the “police murder of Tyrone West by Baltimore police officers, including a Morgan State University officer, and demand justice and accountability for Tyrone West.”
This immature and uncivil behavior is supported by some of Johns Hopkins’ faculty. According to the protest’s Twitter account, more than 80 Johns Hopkins faculty members signed a letter urging Daniels to meet face-to-face with the protesters.
80 Hopkins faculty members have signed on to a letter to President Ron Daniels that urges “We strongly urge you to agree to meet and speak face to face with them at once.” #DisarmJHU #EndtheContracts #NoPrivatePolice pic.twitter.com/w993biTQjk
— JHU Sit-In Day 35 (@TheGarlandSitIn) May 2, 2019
The Twitter account has also called for the resignation of Daniels, with whom they wish to meet.
Mediate or #ResignRon https://t.co/Rb0ZnUCBTA
— JHU Sit-In Day 35 (@TheGarlandSitIn) May 5, 2019
Perhaps showing off the futile nature of the protests even further, the group held their own activities in Garland Hall, including a “6 PM Open Mic Night at the Lockdown” and an “8 PM Dance Party with Board Game Night.”
The protest and subsequent activities at Garland Hall are being funded by a GoFundMe account that raised more than $10,000.
Alexander James is a contributor to Red Alert Politics and a freelance journalist.
