UChicago Student Activist Endures Disciplinary Ordeal Day Before Graduation
By Mae Rice in News on Jun 10, 2016 7:07PM
On the eve of his college graduation, a first-generation college student who has been fighting for better wages for campus workers sat through a disciplinary hearing at University of Chicago.
Though he was ultimately put on probation and allowed to graduate, the hearing could have resulted in his expulsion. The university had charged him with creating an unsafe situation in a campus administrative building during a May protest, he told Chicagoist—but his story has drawn national attention for representing one of the many ways universities can crack down on student-led protests.
On May 19, Tyler Kissinger, 21—student body president for two years, —got past the plainclothes security guard at the campus administrative building by citing fictional student government business. He then let a group of roughly 35 protesters into the building for a peaceful sit-in outside University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer's fifth-floor office.
Kissinger was charged with accessing the building dishonestly and "creating an unsafe situation in the building," he said. (The university doesn't comment on disciplinary cases.) The situation was unsafe in a purely theoretical sense; protesters chanted peacefully for an about an hour, and left the building when it closed at 5 p.m., per the requests of school officials and campus police.
The goal of the IIRON Student Network protest that Kissinger facilitated was to land a public meeting with Zimmer and other upper level university officials about four core IIRON goals: a "living wage" ($15 an hour) for campus workers, including students; increased transparency of the UCPD, a private police force widely accused of racial profiling; better resources for students with disabilities; and getting the university to divest from fossil fuels.
Kissinger has a personal connection to all these issues, especially the issue of campus worker wages; his mom works in food service at Wake Forest University. Kissinger knows first-hand "how hard it can be to raise a family" on minimum wage: $7.25 an hour in North Carolina (though in Illinois, it's $8.25).
"There’s definitely this mentality among people who are working class... in my experience, [that’s] hard to overcome," Kissinger said. "This idea that you don’t deserve better. But I think people do."
Kissinger discovered he would face charges related to the May 19 protest last week. He was the only person involved in the May sit-in who was formally charged, and he argues it's not a coincidence that he's also been "kind of outspoken during my four years here.”
UChicago countered in a statement:
Freedom of expression and dissent are fundamental values of the University of Chicago, as reflected in the Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression. The University's policies do not prevent students from engaging in protest, and the University does not discipline students for speaking out on any issue. Any suggestion otherwise is simply untrue. All students are expected to follow the policies set forth in the Student Manual.
Kissinger's case has nevertheless snowballed into a national story of a university cracking down on student protesters. The New York Times reported on it; democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders then tweeted in support of Kissinger.
Progress takes place when young people pick up the torch and say, "This is a world we are going to change." https://t.co/USvQ7EAZO6
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 8, 2016
A Change.org petition also sprouted up, asking the university administration to drop charges against Kissinger; it has, as of this morning, more than 3,000 signatures. A similar petition, signed by 180 faculty members, was also submitted it to the University of Chicago administration.
Kissinger said that this is “probably the most supported I’ve ever felt at this school."
Like any student entering a disciplinary hearing at the university, Kissinger could have faced a punishment from a warning to expulsion for his infraction. This made planning for graduation a bit difficult. Kissinger told Chicagoist on Thursday that his parents and younger brothers were driving to Chicago from his hometown—Lewisville, North Carolina—"to celebrate something, no matter what."
He added that the hearing has been "stressful" for his parents, but that his mom, in particular, has "come around to me being a little more outspoken.”