Faculty ask Brown University to drop charges against 20 students arrested at sit-in
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Nearly 200 Brown University faculty sent a letter to university leadership, calling on them to drop the charges against 20 students who were arrested for trespassing during a protest last week.
The letter, published in the Brown Daily Herald, was sent to Brown University’s President, Christina Paxson, on November 9th.
As of Monday, the letter was released publicly, and faculty are asking three things of the university’s leadership.
- To insist that all legal charges against the students be dropped immediately
- To exempt the students from any university disciplinary proceedings
- To open a campus-wide conversation that engages seriously with the students’ demands.
On Nov. 8, 20 Brown University students were arrested after participating in a sit-in protest at University Hall
The university said students were given multiple warnings to leave the building after it had closed, but over the course of a few hours, 20 students were led out in handcuffs, facing trespassing charges that can carry up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
“I would say we came in there, or our peers came in there knowing that they had demands and they said they were going to stay in there until that demand was met. And they were prepared to meet the consequences,” said one organizer after the sit-in on Nov. 8.
The letter from staff calls back to a history of peaceful protest at Brown, asking the president to use the protest as a model for the community.
“We urge you to exercise thoughtful, moral leadership at this critical time, Madam President, and thus enable Brown University to be on the right side of history,” the letter reads.
Representatives from Brown University said the trespassing charges against the students who refused to leave the building have not been dropped.
