To President Eduardo Peñalver, Seattle University Students, Faculty, and Staff:
We, the undersigned staff and faculty, write to endorse the following demands made by the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and co-sponsored by the Direct Action Coalition (DAC) and the Sustainable Student Action (SSA). These demands, in their own words, include the following:
Statement acknowledging the US-backed genocide in Gaza and CALL for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Divest from Boeing and other weapons manufacturers.
Carry out the SGSU resolution and provide financial portfolio transparency.
Change the demonstrations clause and student code of conduct.
We believe these demands are eminently reasonable and aligned with Seattle University’s Mission, Vision and Values, especially its commitments to social justice and empowering leaders for a just and humane world. By taking the steps outlined here, Seattle University will model ethical leadership for its students by firmly saying no to an attempted genocide that has already killed at least 35,000 Palestinians (a provisional number considered a significant undercount given the number of bodies buried beneath rubble and in mass graves), including over 15,000 children, over 130 journalists, and over 350 medical personnel, as well as destroyed every hospital and university in Gaza. As faculty and staff who believe in the sanctity of all life, we cannot stand silent as these atrocities are committed with this institution’s tacit support through its partnerships and investments. In light of these dire conditions, it is clear the On Campus Demonstrations Policy and Speaker Policy must be revised to empower student activists as they organize events in response to this urgent crisis and others to come by removing arduous and unnecessary permit deadlines and speaker approval processes. Similarly, in the face of an ongoing genocide, the university must uphold its commitment to academic freedom for faculty and respect staff members’ rights to act in accord with their conscience.
On May 10, 2024, President Eduardo Peñalver sent a university-wide email titled “Conflict in Israel and Gaza.” In it, President Peñalver outlined steps he is taking in response to student demands. These steps are not enough. We are concerned that students will be subjected to fragmented,inefficient, and wholly discretionary bureaucratic processes, that faculty and staff will be excluded from such institutional actions, and that neither students, nor faculty nor staff, will have any decision-making power. We thus additionally ask for the following:
Inclusion of faculty and staff in any conversations between the president and students about these demands.
Accountability around these demands through quarterly updates, beginning with an update on all of these demands within the first two weeks of Fall Quarter 2024, and yearly reviews of any new processes or policies related to the demands by groups with broad student, faculty, and staff representation.
We believe faculty and staff, whose work is the core of the university’s function, must follow the lead of our courageous student activists not only in declaring our own outrage at the violent ethnic cleansing and ongoing slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in demanding substantive actions on the part of the university. Moving forward on the students’ demands would represent an actual commitment to “the actions we can take in response to events around the world…” that President Peñalver claims supersede hollow statements.
We invite President Peñalver and his administration to show real moral clarity and leadership for a just and humane world by joining the Pope in calling for an immediate ceasefire; joining Evergreen State College in committing to divestment from Israel and weapons manufacturers sponsoring their violence; joining Brown and Northwestern University in providing full investment transparency; and serving as a model for truly open and non-restrictive student activism through a collaborative revision of the current student demonstration policy. Having the courage to stand against the tide of war and genocide will demonstrate our devotion to social justice as a historical reality worth fighting for and not only an abstract ideal.
In solidarity,
You can see a version of this letter with the current signatories here.
