Letter to UT Austin President Hartzell

On the violence you have invited

Dear President Hartzell,

I am writing as an alumnus of UT Austin, having received an MA in Latin American studies in 2007 and a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese in 2013. In fact, I was back on campus last week as part of the 2024 Lozano Long Conference sponsored by LLILAS, where I witnessed the best of what the university can be. And yet, yesterday I watched in horror as state troopers with automatic rifles, armed in riot gear, on horseback and motorcycles, violently arrested students advocating for a ceasefire in Palestine and the divestment of UT from Israel. I watched in horror as the right to express dissent was systematically repressed at your invitation, with the administration’s knowledge and sanction. 

Inviting the police onto campus to repress a previously planned teach-in, one that up until the day before had the support of the administration, is antithetical to the values of the university. Such violence and intimidation is antithetical to the spirit of inquiry and academic excellence that I heard so much of in my time at UT. The university motto, etched into a plaque on the administration building, in case you need a reminder, is that “what starts here changes the world,” and I cannot help but wonder what change you have stifled, what worlds and what future possibilities you are silencing through your acceptance of the violent repression of students who are trying to advocate for the very thing the university purports to hold as a core value: change. 

To change the world means not accepting the genocide of the Palestinian people as the collateral damage of the Israeli occupation; means not accepting the displacement of Palestinian people by the creation of the state of Israel as justified; means not accepting that normal operations on UT’s campus must be preserved when there are no more universities left in Gaza; means not accepting the tens of thousands of deaths at the hands of the Israeli military, with the backing and support of the United States, is simply the price that must be paid for existing as Palestinian people; means not accepting the hyperbole of uninformed media outlets and the threats of conservative donors and state politicians who claim Israel’s actions are justified; means not burying your head in the sand when the opportunity for changing the world is staring you in the face. 

In my time at the university, I witnessed and participated in numerous protests—against the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, against guns on campus, against the ban on marriage equality—and in none of those instances did the UT administration demonstrate the thirst for violence that you have shown. In none of those instances were students violently apprehended by dozens of state troopers as if they were expecting an armed rebellion. This is simply unconscionable, and you and your administration should be ashamed of how you have handled the demand for change. 

I am writing to express my indignation and disappointment. But most of all, I am writing to advocate for the release of the students you allowed to be arrested yesterday, and that you drop the charges levied against them. Let their release be the start of the change you claim to want; let them guide you toward the change the university hopes to foster; let their voices replace the weapons you invited onto campus. For once, let them be the change you hope they can be. 

Sincerely,

Joseph